The Salvatore Wolf
by LeonDesdichard
Summary: What if Derek Hale was actually Derek Salvatore because they are related? Talia is forced to leave Derek with Damon when he accidentally kills a hunter when he is only five years old. The Argents make a deal with Talia that if he was to leave Beacon Hills they would not hunt him down because of his age, but that he could not remain in Beacon Hills. So she brings him to Damon
1. Hell's Bells

Tennessee

"Please tell me that you're at least being careful Derek." Damon Salvatore was an enormous mother hen to the man who was practically his own son. Derek Salvatore sighed upon hearing the worry coming from the other end of the phone. Knowing that it was well intended he let the statement slide because he knew that his father was just worried about him, and it was well-founded.

"Dad, I'm being safe don't worry. I'm keeping well ahead of the two terror twins. The fact that these wolf packs are not hiding in less obvious places such as the woods makes me ashamed. Luckily I'm not the same breed as these guys so I have an upper hand." Derek was pulling into the parking lot of a bar which was where the two girls from earlier had said that Ray frequented. First, he would find Ray and then he would locate the wolf pack so that he could warn them of the impending terror twins.

"Look I'm not saying that you're not being safe. It's just that both Klaus and Stefan have been pretty much right on your tail. You just need to pick up the pace so that they don't end up catching up to you." Derek smiled as he turned off the Camaro, the fact was that if it had not been for Damon then he would have been probably cast off as an omega by his own family, they had still visited him sure but Damon was his real family. The bad part about his biological family's choice was that Derek hadn't known what to feel when they died because he had grown up being raised by a vampire. Because he had felt close to them but it hadn't hurt him as much as if Damon or even Stefan to an extent had died.

"I'll be careful I promise. I just have to talk to this Ray guy and then I'll be headed to the very next wolf pack. Besides the last I heard was that Klaus and Stefan were located a good few states away from me." Damon scoffed over the phone at what Derek had just said, there was no doubt that Derek had been raised by him. The fact made him proud but there was also the worry because Derek even though he was not the same type of werewolf that Lockmutt was he was still just a werewolf and could be killed by a broken neck.

"Keep me updated." With this the phone call was over and Derek laughed quietly to himself knowing that the last comment had been the closest thing to I love you that Damon was going to give. Immediately after climbing out of the car Derek was hit with the smell of alcohol, urine, and sex, the first was not that bad but the other two was somewhat unpleasant. "Well, here goes nothing."

Derek looked around the bar upon entering and upon not noticing anyone who could possibly fit the description of Ray, or the scent which the girls had allowed him to get off one of Ray's shirts Derek walked up to the bar. Asking for a whiskey he waited for the barman to return and after swallowing the alcohol and letting it burn on the way down his throat he looked to the man. "Do you know where a man called Ray could be?" The alarm which appeared in the man's eyes made it easily evident that he obviously knew where the man was. Looking around quickly so that he could check if anyone was looking he quickly grabbed the arm of the man who was about finished typing in something on his phone. Derek quickly got the man's attention before the fear and panic which he was expressing became evident to everyone in the bar.

"Hey, look. Don't freak out. Look at me." The man upon looking at Derek's face instantly calmed down upon seeing the momentary flash of cobalt blue eyes which Derek flashed his way. "I'm here to help don't worry. I just need to know exactly where the pack is." After the man nodded Derek let go of the man's arm, knowing that he would not be making any panicked decisions.

"Ray's at work right now because he always comes by here after work. I don't have his number, so I can't get you to him. I only know that his name is Ray because I'm the one who serves him his whiskey." Derek rolled his eyes upon hearing the bartender talk, this had basically been a waste of a trip. As soon as Derek started to walk away though the bartender called him back over to the bar, and the glare that Derek sent the man's way made the man quickly get to the point.

"I know where you can find the wolf pack though. They're located up somewhere in the nature preserve. They all go camping up there around that time of the month if you get what I'm trying to say. I don't know anything else though, I swear." Derek glared at the man for another moment longer, to ensure that the man wasn't holding out on him before smirking and patting the man on the cheek. "I'll be back if you are. I don't appreciate liars." Damon was rubbing off on him to much he thought internally as he walked away trying not to look as if he was in a rush. He sent off a quick text to Damon telling him that he had located where the latest pack and was in Memphis, Tennessee in the more likely case that he wasn't going to get reception up in the nature reserve. Upon getting a response he looked down and smirked upon seeing the response.

Damon: Don't get cocky.  
Derek: Hello pot have you met the kettle?  
Damon: Smartass  
Derek: I miss you too

With that he cranked up the Camaro and started the drive towards the nature preserve, hoping that he would be able to find these wolves easier than the last pack, and that he wouldn't risk getting his head ripped off like with the last pack.

Mystic Falls

"And how is Derek?" Damon looked up from his phone which he had been using to text Derek, loving how much of himself had rubbed off on the younger werewolf.

"A chip off the old block." The scoff which came from Andy nearly concealed the sound of the front door opening which meant only one thing, Elena. Groaning he climbed out of his bathtub laughing lightly as he heard Andy mention the fact that he was dripping all over the floor. It's not like it wasn't anything that she had never seen before. The look which would obviously appear on Elena's face would be totally worth it, and it so was. The look which she had on her face was the best thing other than talking to Derek all day, honestly it was so easy getting a reaction from Elena that he barely even had to try. The joy that he had upon seeing her reaction was short lived upon hearing that the next lead was in Memphis, Derek was in Tennessee.

"Look I would love to argue the point which you are going to try and make but I have better things to do than focus on the fact that you're reaching for straws." The look on the teenage girls face upon hearing the obvious disregard from Damon was one of shock, and then anger at being ignored. Damon never looked back to see the look which was on her face because he was more focused on the fact that Klaus could possibly be right on top of Derek. The werewolf could be walking to his own death and he wouldn't know until it was too late.

"I need you to get me an address for that place in Memphis immediately, Derek could be walking into the lion's den." Andy nodded immediately calling the office on her phone and asking for the information which would be there for her when she got into work. "Derek will be alright don't worry Damon." But Damon wasn't listening in the slightest, he was listening to the dial tone tapping his foot impatiently waiting for Alaric to answer his phone. When his friend picked up the phone he didn't even give the man the time to even comment before talking over him.

"We need to go to Memphis, now. Andy is getting us an address, be ready when I get to the house." Hanging up he immediately called Derek listening as the phone went to voice mail. This was not good, this was really not good. The vampire wasted no time in getting dressed he then rushed out of the house leaving his own car so that he would be able to reach Alaric faster.

Tennessee Nature Preserve

Derek thanked every single deity available as he started to hear the noise of people moving around and talking to each other, he had finally found the wolf pack. Now the hard part which would be the convincing them to leave the very camp and safe haven so that they could evade a hypothetical hybrid that most of the supernatural world still did not believe in. Derek had to admit the fact that the story sounded as if it had been made up by a child, honestly the sun and moon curse was something that was obviously fake, he just thanked God that he wasn't forced to break every bone in his body to turn.

Making sure to walk up on the pack so that he would be noticed easily he scoffed slightly at how these people did not even notice him until he was practically right on top of them.

"What're you doing here?" Derek rolled his eyes at the question. Honestly could no one come up with anything more original than that question each time. The fact that almost every single wolf pack had asked him this question each time he located them was beginning to get on his nerves.

"The more important question is how quickly can you pack up camp and find a new area to have your full moon get together." The looks which he received gave him all the answer which he needed, which was that it would take at least a day for them to be able to pack up camp and leave. The main factor would probably be that these wolves would delay just so that they could have Ray come with them, which he understood because leaving another wolf behind was unheard of. The factor of Ray though was somewhat problematic in this very special set of circumstances though.

"Why would we move our entire camp? There better be a very good reason as to why some idiotic man dressed in a leather jacket is up in the nature preserve." It took every amount of self-control not to groan aloud at the stupidity which the man was displaying, and this man wasn't even a werewolf.

"You've heard of Klaus Mikaelson, correct?" The blank look on these people's faces made him actually groan audibly this time. "Honestly your packs need to get out more, the fact that the man is hunting each and every one of you down is getting on my last nerve. You all are making it so easy for him because of the fact that you all choose wooded areas." The man who had spoken earlier was replaced by a brunette who was obviously a wolf unlike the other man and she was clearly the alpha.

"The next insult which comes from your mouth will cost you your tongue. Now tell us what exactly you are here for." The growl which came from the woman's mouth made him want to roll his eyes, but he was trying to gain the cooperation of the pack, but damn they were making it hard for him. "Look. You need to pack up and get out of here before Klaus Mikaelson ends up finding your pack. The man has been going up and down the eastern seaboard trying to turn werewolves into hybrids. I've been helping other packs get away, but we need to move out before you end up being next."

"You cannot be serious. The fact that you are actually talking about the man who has been under a curse for over a thousand years makes me very unwilling to believe you. The supposed original hybrid which has been unable to break the curse which he has been under for over a thousand years. I will need a very good reason as to why I am expected to believe you." This was very quickly getting old, the fact that these wolves were unwilling to change locations on full moons was probably one of the main reasons as to why they were going out like the dodo bird.

"I found you because of the two women that know Ray." The look which he received from the alpha was one of disbelief. Derek sighed before trying to think of something which would help his case as to finding them so easily, apart from the fact that these wolves chose to hide in a damn nature preserve. "The women, the blond and the dark brunette, they have a little dog named Rudy."

"We have to wait for Ray. I won't leave one of my own pack to get captured by this Klaus Mikaelson." More than likely killed by Klaus Mikaelson but so be it, he needed to get the wolves out of here and if he had to remain an extra day just so that he would be able to get them to a more secure location which he had already mapped out close to here. "Do you have a sleeping bag that I could borrow?" The question seemed to catch the other wolves off guard, apparently not expecting him to actually remain so that he would be able to help them out. The human member of the pack motioned to the pile of sleeping bags which had been placed on the ground so as to distribute them evenly. "Everything else needs to be ready. No tents, no campfires. Anything that doesn't have to be used will not be used, we need to be ready to go as soon as Ray gets here. Understood?" The female alpha nodded in understanding before looking to Derek with a look which he took as her evaluating him and trying to decide what his own motive here was. "Why exactly are you doing this? You have nothing overall to gain from our own safe escape from this man." Derek revealed his own werewolf features causing shock to run throughout the camp.

"Don't worry about it. The fact that I'm helping you out should be enough."

"What are you?" Derek rolled his own eyes hearing the question which had been asked more often than not. "I'm a werewolf same as you, just a different breed. Now stop asking questions so that we can get everything packed up and ready to go for tomorrow." Taking off his own leather jacket he began to help the rest of the pack in taking down the tents and getting everything, which would need to be packed up together.

House in Memphis

"Fuck everything!" Alaric looked over to Damon after he had parked the car in front of the house which had was where the address that Andy had given had led them to. "Derek still not answering?" Damon was silent for a moment before simply climbing out of the car, choosing to not even answer the question which Alaric had asked him. "The fact that Derek is not answering is driving me up the wall. Mainly due to the fact that Klaus and Stefan went all the way from Florida to Tennessee and we thought that he would have more time."

"Maybe he has already reached the wolf pack which is why Derek isn't answering? And give me the reason as to why I have not met this surrogate son of yours yet?" Damon looked to his phone once more before looking to Alaric with a smirk. "Rick are you upset because you have yet to meet my son?" The look which he received made it so that he almost forgot about the fact that he was annoyed by how the werewolf was not answering his phone. "The fact that none of us have actually met the guy, along with the fact that only Andy and I know about the man makes me curious as to why you continually hide him." The smell of blood was overwhelming as the two men reached the house and the sight was even worse which made him groan. Stefan needed to learn restraint, the fact that he had never managed to properly learn restraint even truly in his human life did not help.

"Derek is not a secret. I just don't tell that many people about Derek because then he would have to come and meet the people which I have no inclination to impress other than you. And he's not my surrogate son Rick, he is my son. What?" There was an enormous grin on Rick's face which was extremely out of place in relation as to where they were. "You just don't want people to know that you care enough to have raised another human being during your time as a so-called heartless vampire." Damon refused to answer this question but only because of the fact that he refused to answer, not because any of what Rick had said could have been in the slightest bit true.

Using his senses to reach out he received the very thing which he had been hoping that he would not find. There was a trace of Derek in the house, so he had obviously been here. "We need to search the house now. Look for any sign of another body, he'd be male, about my age with black hair and green eyes." The two of them quickly searched the house and to Damon's relief they found no trace other than the scent which he had gotten earlier in the initial search. "He's not here Damon, hopefully Derek was gone before both Klaus and Stefan arrived." Damon was barely listening as he began to quickly pour gasoline on the women's bodies and lighting a match to get the fire started.

As they reached the car Damon tried one more time to call Derek, leaving another message in the hope that the man would get his warning about Klaus before it was too late. "We need to get back to Mystic Falls as quickly as possible so that we can figure out exactly where the next wolf pack is. And if Stefan kills Derek I will reign down a punishment that will make Klaus Mikaelson seem like a puppy." Rick chose not to answer as the two of them headed back towards Mystic Falls, Alaric hoping inwardly that this was not going to end badly for his friend.

"If Derek was raised by you then he will have some semblance of survival instincts Damon. He'll be fine." The nod which he received reassured him slightly, but he was nervous as to what Damon would do should Klaus or even more unlikely Stefan kill the Derek Salvatore that Damon had told him all about.

Bar in Tennessee

"You can end this Ray! Just tell me where your pack is."

"Fuck you!" The insult was made less severe though because of how Stefan was listening into the conversation between Klaus and a woman which he had compelled earlier were having. "The brother of your friend was at the farmhouse earlier. The one which the guy in the leather jacket came from earlier." Stefan saw the immediate interest in Klaus upon hearing about the other man who had paid a visit to the farmhouse. "Do tell Claudine." The girl smiled upon receiving the man's attention, making Stefan want to groan at how desperate the woman was for even the slightest bit of attention.

"There was a man earlier who came in earlier. Sexy guy with a leather jacket, dark hair, a bit taller than you. Didn't stay very long, had a bit of whiskey and then he left after talking to the bartender for maybe five minutes if even that." The grin which appeared on the hybrid's face made Stefan nervous, especially due to the fact that Klaus would be able to question the guy and possibly find the wolf pack easier. "Where is this man Claudine?" The girl looked to the floor where there was a man who Stefan had made a snack of earlier and Stefan hoped that the man was the bartender.

"Your friend made a good snack of him earlier." The joy which had been on Klaus' face vanished upon seeing the dead bartender. "Well that is slightly annoying, but not more so than the older brother who seems to enjoy following you around Stefan. I'm going to go and deal with that while you continue talking to Ray." Panic was the first emotion which he felt upon hearing what exactly Klaus had said.

"Let me handle it Klaus. You know that I'll come back because I owe you for saving my brother's life. I'll make that he understands that he has no choice but to stop following us." Stefan did not have to look back to know that Klaus was smirking at how he was reacting to the situation. Damon needed to stop following them though, because he didn't even know if he would be able to come back from this because of all the blood that he had shed with Klaus.

Boarding House

Damon did not care in the slightest that Elena was annoyed at him for not escorting her down to her own party, but it did not matter. Her life was not in danger, the fact that it had been hours since he had last heard from Derek was concerning. The two of them did not always constantly talk but when either one of them was in danger each of them kept constant contact. Alaric who was next to him researching all of the information which they had gained over the past two months along with trying to keep him calm was comforting. Rick always had that ability to calm him down though when he felt as if he was spiraling out of control. When his own phone went off signaling that he had gotten a text he nearly ignored the stupid device but then Rick convinced him to look.

"Damon, I found another connection to Tennessee in Memphis. It could be your own wolf pack." Telling Rick what was going on before leaving the other man with instructions not to let any stupid teenagers kill themselves he left for the news station. Rick followed the other man down the stairs so that he would be able to keep an eye on Elena who was the best trouble magnet that he had ever encountered he watched as Damon walked out the front door.

Damon's Bedroom

"This room's off limits!" Caroline said nothing else upon realizing that Elena was the one who had walked into the bedroom. "Elena are you hiding from your own party?" The fake smile which Elena had on her face was all that Caroline needed to get the answer to that question, so she tried to change the subject.

"So who's the sexy guy in the picture with Damon over here?" Elena looked confused at what Caroline had said and even more so when she saw the picture of Damon and some other guy. Damon had never shown any of them that picture, even her which made her incredibly confused because Damon tended to not have many keepsakes unlike Stefan. "I have no idea. But they're obviously close enough that Damon would take a picture with the guy. There's even one with Damon, Stefan and the mysterious sexy guy. So he's important enough to make Damon and Stefan take a picture together." Caroline turned the picture over obviously looking for a name or some kind of clue as to who exactly this guy was when Elena turned around and saw the closet door which was cracked open. Approaching the door, she was confused at all of the maps and information on the walls until she noticed that Damon had written the word Klaus and had other information about vampire attacks on the wall. "I can't believe that he has been hunting Klaus without me." Just as she was about to turn around she saw a name on the wall which was in all caps. DEREK LAST LOCATION and had an arrow pointing to the area in Tennessee which Sheriff Forbes had given her earlier today. The anger though at being left in the dark overcame the curiosity as to who Derek could possibly be.

News Station

Damon ignored the call from Elena as he walked into the station which was where Andy was supposed to be only to see his brother standing like some evil villain in the middle of the room. "Stefan, you need to get a better friend. I mean since you began hanging out you don't call you don't write. I mean I hear more from Derek than I hear from you." His brother chose not to take the bait which annoyed him to no end, he was even more annoyed by how Stefan seemed to know that Rick and he had been following them. There had been no mention of Derek yet though which made Damon less worried than he had been earlier.

"You need to stop following us and helping the wolves escape before we can reach them. Klaus is getting angrier and angrier each time Damon and if he had come then he probably would have killed you for interfering so much."

"What Klaus thinks means less than nothing to me Stefan."

"You need to let me go Damon, that is what you are supposed to do. I don't need your blood on my hands because of how Klaus will kill you if you warn another wolf pack of our purpose." The mention of what had gone down in Tennessee seemed to get a reaction from his younger brother who laughed slightly which Damon knew meant that Stefan was nervous about being unable to come back to his old life. "We both know that Elena is not going to allow me to do that."

"Maybe I haven't made my point Damon. Why don't we test your resolve? Andy you can move now." Looking around quickly for Andy Damon was shocked to see Andy who was standing up on the catwalk terrified as she put one foot out into open air. The attempt that he made to save her was meaningless as Stefan kept him from saving Andy who fell to her death. Damon expected Stefan to be gone by the time he got to Andy's lifeless form but was shocked when he turned around to see the form of his little brother still there. "Damon you and Alaric need to stop whatever it is that you're doing. Let me go. Because if I see the other guy who was at the farmhouse before Klaus and me, I'll rip him to shreds just to get my point across even more. And I'll send you the pieces one by one in the mail." Anger which had been at bay came surging up as Damon took Stefan down to the ground, tacking his brother like it was nothing. Because even though his brother was now running on human blood he lacked the pure white-hot fury that Damon possessed right now.

"YOU TOUCH A HAIR ON HIS HEAD AND I WILL LOCK YOU IN THE CRYPT AND POUR VERVAIN DOWN YOUR THROAT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS! YOU LEAVE HIM OUT OF THIS!" Stefan instantly upon witnessing how angry Damon was stopped struggling, tricking his brother into letting down his guard so that he could get out from underneath the elder Salvatore. Standing on the other side of the room Stefan had obviously come to a realization if his facial expression was anything to go by.

"Derek's blood is on your hands Damon. Klaus will rip him to shreds when he finds out." Damon moved to attack Stefan, but he was gone in the next instant. Damon felt as if he was going to be sick, this was entirely his fault. Derek was going to end up being killed by Klaus and he had no idea where to search except for Memphis,Tennessee.

Boarding House

Damon felt detached as he walked through all of the partying and drinking which was going on in the boarding house as he headed up towards his room, Damon instantly regretted it when he saw Elena standing with all of the information on Klaus and Stefan.

"Why did you not tell me that you have been searching for Klaus and Stefan all summer Damon? Why did you let me feel like an idiot?"

"Because I was more worried about my own brother and another person who is very close to me than about your teenage drama Elena! I have someone very close to me who is possibly going to be Klaus or Stefan's next victim and I'm wasting time arguing with you! Stefan will more than likely not be back during your lifetime!" With this Damon left the room slamming the door with a loud thud as he went off in search of Alaric who was the only person he could possibly imagine not killing right now.

Bar in Tennessee

"Ray, I want more than the pack. I want to know exactly who the man in the leather jacket is that you are protecting. The fact that this man has been able to rescue a good many wolf packs from my grasp is impressive in the least."

"I don't know, the last time I was with the pack was earlier today and whoever the person is was not there when I was." Klaus seemed to take this in before feeding Ray his blood and then breaking his neck, smiling afterwards upon seeing Stefan had returned to the bar. "I didn't doubt for a second that you would return to this very bar Stefan because you still care enough about your brother, about your family and old life that you wouldn't risk me taking my anger out on them." Klaus laughed when Stefan tried to act as if he did not care for his family in the slightest.

"I extremely enjoy the fact that you are trying to pretend that you care nothing for the fact that I would rip your brother to shreds just to prove a point. Keep that in mind if you ever decide to betray me. Hopefully we will find the man that has been making my life so difficult for these past two months, and then I'll be able to deal with him." Stefan used every bit of restraint to make sure that he showed no type of emotion upon hearing the mention of Derek. The chances of Derek coming out of this alive were slim to none, and he knew that Damon was never going to forgive him when Klaus managed to kill Derek. Derek was Damon's son in every possible way, and the fact that Damon was going to raise heaven and hell to get revenge terrified him.

Talia had been wrong to drop Derek off with any of the Salvatore's he thought to himself relative or no, because all that Damon and he brought was death to everyone around them. The fact was that Derek would have been safer anywhere but with Damon and Stefan, his mother should done anything other than having him live with Damon. Because Derek being associated with the two of them brought the one thing that he had feared would always happen. That he would eventually die because of them, and it seemed that it was going to happen sooner rather than later.


	2. Bad Moon Rising

Smoky Mountains, Tennessee

"Is there any possibility that your pack mate is on his way? Because If not then we need to head out. Because I'm not allowing you to die over just one member of your pack who is probably dead after this much time because of Klaus." The alpha looked at Derek as if he had grown two heads, the way that he talked about leaving a person behind who was a part of their pack was not like a werewolf at all.

"That tattoo that you have, do you realize the importance of what you have tattooed on your body?" Derek's eyes narrowed upon hearing the question, the alpha when he had taken his shirt off had seen the large triskelion tattoo on his left ribcage. He had originally been going to get it done on his back but had changed his mind and it spanned from the top of his left ribcage to his hipbone dipping just under the top of his jeans. The only thing which his family had really enforced upon him was the importance of family and the symbol which had been important to them since Viking times, legend was that it bound the Hales to an age-old type of protection.

"Biological family crest. The only real link that I have to my family considering that I was raised by someone else entirely." Derek said as he pulled on the black V-neck which he had removed earlier and was now finally getting around to putting it back on. After the group had finished loading the sleeping bags and other cooking supplies which had been used last night.

"They weren't a werewolf, were they? The view on pack that you have is skewed and unlike that of a werewolf's." Derek smirked in response to the alpha and her higher than thou attitude. "They're not a werewolf. They're a vampire. Derek Salvatore, formerly Derek Hale." The shock on the faces of the werewolves around him showed him that the name Derek Hale meant something to them. "You were the werewolf that was cast off from his own pack."

Whatever Derek had been about to say left his mind as he took in the scent of blood, blood and the scent of someone who he was familiar with, and it wasn't Damon.

"Bloody fucking hell." Turning around Derek saw Stefan Salvatore and another man who Derek had never met before but knew to be the Original Hybrid who smirked after having watched Stefan throw the man he assumed to be Ray onto the ground. Derek was shocked upon meeting the gaze of the Original Hybrid. Derek thought that the man would appear differently, and not in the body of a blond blue-eyed well-muscled figure who he had difficulty removing his gaze from. Realizing that the Original Hybrid had been having the same problem made him smirk, he knew when he was being looked up and down growing up with Damon had taught him to appreciate the look.

"Sorry for the interruption. I'm Klaus, the hybrid." The air seemed to grow colder as soon as Klaus had spoken, and the female alpha stepped forward, running to Ray who still lay motionless on the ground. But Ray didn't remain motionless for long jerking up and making a loud gasp as he came back to the world of the living. Derek felt the gaze of Stefan from where he was standing behind Klaus, but he refused to look to the vampire. Wanting to keep the fact that he was the man who had been messing with Klaus and Stefan for months along with the fact that he was a Salvatore quiet for as long as possible.

"Are there any humans around here that would be willing to donate their blood to the noble cause of keeping Ray alive?" The lack of action made Derek inwardly scoff, so much for being a pack he thought as he watches Klaus bite into the arm of the only human in the pack of wolves. The way that Ray bit into the man's arm made the entire group of wolves' flinches, all but Derek who had been witness to vampire bites throughout his entire life. When the female alpha ran toward Klaus in an effort to attack the hybrid he knew that it was over for her, she was going to be subjected to the same thing that happened to Ray. Watching as Klaus broke her neck only to allow her to drop to the ground, Derek was more nervous than he had been earlier, because the alpha wolf having been taken down there would be chaos in less than ten minutes, and that was being generous.

Klaus as he pulled away looked to the entire group of wolves and then Stefan before sitting down on one of the fallen trees which littered the ground. "Now. Since I've made my point as to what is going to happen I'm going to give you all a chance to do something before you're forced to die and then come back again." Derek looked to Stefan who was conveniently looking anywhere but at him. Where was Damon? He really didn't care how childish it sounded that he wanted his father to come and help save him, because he wasn't naïve enough to believe that he would even in the slightest be able to take down the hybrid. "Where is the man who appeared yesterday? He has been foiling my plans for coming on two months now, and I would really like to congratulate him." Derek could feel the look of every single one of the wolf's as they turned to look to him while he looked Klaus straight in the eye.

"You look very familiar mate, are you sure that we haven't met before?" Derek chose to remain silent as Klaus approached him, and he awaited the moment when Klaus would choose to strike out at him. All of a sudden, he was being held up against the bark of a tree which was scratching and cutting into his back. The pain was nothing compared to the lack of oxygen which was being caused by the unrelenting grip from Klaus around his windpipe. "I asked you a question mate. So, answer." Derek knew that Klaus was trying to compel him, but it didn't work, compulsion had never worked on him even as a child.

"If you give me a kiss maybe I'll tell you my name." What started as a smirk turned into a full-on grin when he got to see the look from Klaus at being unable to compel the werewolf. Then the hybrid smirked, and Derek was confused for a moment until the hybrid grabbed him by the back of the neck and kissed him. Derek was so shocked that his mouth parted just enough for the hybrid to shove his tongue in and explore every inch of Derek's mouth before he recovered enough to kiss the man back. The man had lips which were sinful as his mouth melded against the hybrids who was still trying to apparently to push him through the tree that he had backed him into.

The sound of a cough brought both Derek and Klaus back to the present and Derek just realized that they had been making out in front of everyone. And now there was a slight problem with how uncomfortably tight his pants were. "Derek." Confusion ran across the hybrid's face for a moment and he felt a surge of pride that he had kissed the man thoroughly enough that he had forgotten everything for a minute there. "Why have you been helping the wolves escape from me Derek?" A scowl came over his face upon hearing the question, the answer was obvious why was he asking him this? "You're asking me why I wouldn't let you change people against their will? You are not giving these people a choice." Klaus seemed shocked by this answer but then something else got the man's attention upon drawing closer to the younger werewolf.

"You're a werewolf." The look on Stefan's face was one of horror at the realization as to what Klaus was going to do to Derek. Derek knew that there was no possible way that he was going to escape the fate which Ray had received, Klaus was going to kill him, and Damon was going to go on a suicidal mission to get revenge for him. "What is your name?"

"I already told you."

"Your full name." His blood ran cold as soon as Klaus' grip tightened on his throat, his other hand coming to rest on top of his sternum, and Derek knew exactly what he was going to do if he refused to tell him. "Derek. Derek Salvatore." Widened eyes, and then a full-blown smile broke out on his face upon hearing the last name. "Now I understand why you look so familiar, you look like Damon Salvatore. Did you know that?" Klaus said with a smirk before it turned into a frown and turning to look to Stefan he asked the younger vampire if he had had any idea as to his relative's actions.

"Stefan knew nothing about me interfering with the wolves. It was all my idea."

"You see now, I don't know if I believe you."

"You just had your tongue shoved down my throat and you don't believe me?" A full-blown laugh erupted from Klaus before he became serious once more. Klaus without warning ripped into his wrist and shoved it against Derek's mouth before he could even think to do anything but swallow the blood which was being forced down his throat. Klaus smirked when he pulled his wrist away from the werewolf's mouth, leaning in and licking the remains of his blood from around Derek's mouth, before pulling him into a kiss to remove the blood from his lips which had been painted red. "There would be no point in killing you really. The fact is that you are more use to me as a test subject than as a dead body." Klaus pulled back from Derek allowing him to finally breathe, Stefan had a look of shock at what had just gone down, and Derek could smell the fear as well. The hybrid seemed to be thinking about what exactly he was going to do about Derek and the rest of the wolves when Stefan walked over. The vampire then stopped, standing next to the body of the human who was lying utterly still obviously in shock because of having his arm nearly ripped off. "Klaus. Don't kill him, the trouble that Damon would be if you killed Derek would not be worth the trouble." Klaus smirked looking first to Stefan and then to Derek before he seemed to make a decision.

But Derek never heard the decision which Klaus had come to. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement, and the human who had been completely ignored by Stefan and Klaus suddenly rose up with a stake in his hand. Derek had no idea as to how he managed to reach Stefan and the human in time, but he shoved the Salvatore vampire out of the way. He distantly heard movement and figured that it was probably Klaus who would have thought that he was going to try and attack him, but Derek was too caught up in saving Stefan to care.

The sound of Stefan yelling out as Derek shoved his body between the stake which had been aimed true for Stefan's back was the only other thing he heard. The stake which seemed to pierce the layers of skin and bone too easily struck Derek just to the left scraping against his heart. But even though the stake had managed to not pierce him through the heart did not mean that it had not done the damage which it had been meant to do. Derek felt the familiar pain which only someone who had been injured as frequently as a supernatural being could recognize. The feeling of having an artery inside of your own body being torn and spilling blood uniformly making it so that you would feel as if you were drowning. But luckily for him there would be the werewolf healing which would prevent him from bleeding out. The sudden sting which immediately followed the internal bleeding was one which made the remaining blood inside of his veins run cold. The sting immediately turned into a blind, excruciating pain which took his knees out from under him.

Wolfsbane. How had he been so stupid. Derek had noticed the human last night making wooden stakes, but he had never seen the man soak them in wolfsbane. The idiot must have thought that he would be able to take down Klaus with a combination of a vampire and werewolf weakness. Derek saw the horror on Stefan's face as he the vampire realized that Derek was going to drown in his own blood. Derek saw Stefan's panic increase as the werewolf fell to his knees from the combined pain of the internal bleeding and the wolfsbane which was constantly being pumped throughout his blood stream.

The shock and horror on Stefan's face as he lowered Derek to the ground as he was coughing up blood made Derek feel awful for how his uncle was going to take his death to heart. Would he even be turned into a hybrid because of the fact that he was a different breed of werewolf? He wanted to tell his uncle that it would be alright but something totally different came out of his mouth. "My dad. Stefan, you have to tell my dad. You need to make sure that he doesn't try and get revenge." The effort which he exerted in saying just these few words to Stefan brought even more blood up from Derek's lungs and made his chest hurt even worse from the coughing which brought even more blood up from his throat.

Stefan was holding onto Derek with a grip that hurt and that was unrelenting, but it was grounding for Derek who could feel himself slipping away as he literally heard his heart slowing down, beat by beat. Derek was glad to have anything that would distract him from how it was getting harder and harder to breathe, and distantly in the background he heard his uncle yelling. "You have to save him! You can't let him die!" Derek tried to tell his uncle that it was not going to help. Because the wolfsbane being constantly pumped into his bloodstream via his torn artery would make it so that any attempt towards listening in to the conversation only made everything hurt even worse.

It terrified the wolf knowing that the only thing which would give him relief would be death. The only good thing was that Klaus had given him his blood before he had apparently gained the self-sacrificing attitude of his uncle. The thing was that as much as Derek knew that Damon loved him, he knew that losing Stefan would completely destroy him. Damon could not lose his brother as important as he was to his father. Black spots began to consume his vision and he started hacking, the blood which was pooling in his chest coming up to stain his shirt along with the lower part of his face. The sound of his heart slowing down was the aspect of this entire event which was starting to terrify him every second which dragged on. Earlier when he had been listening to the sound of his heart it had been scary, but now it was terrifying as the realization that his heart was beating slower and slower every moment this dragged on.

Derek was terrified about what his father was going to do when he found out about his death, should he not get turned into a hybrid. Because there was literally no documentation of a successful hybrid, his breed of werewolf or otherwise. He hoped that Damon would not be too mad at Stefan, because it really was not his uncle's fault. The darkness which had been taking up most of his vision cleared up for a moment, allowing him to see the shocked face of Klaus who looked almost remorseful. Derek laughed bringing more blood to land on his chin, causing the two men who had been arguing to look suddenly to him.

"There is no way that your whatever he is to you is going to survive, I'm sorry about that." Derek watched as his uncle's eyes narrowed, the anger evident in the gaze which was being directed at the hybrid. "You can do something!" Derek tried to get the attention of the two men but was being unsuccessful for the most part, and he saw as the pack of wolves in the background were completely motionless not wanting to gain the wrath of either Stefan or Klaus. Knowing how much exactly that trying to talk would hurt he prepared himself but was still shocked by exactly how much it hurt.

"Stef-."Derek took a moment to cough up even more blood as his heart was trying to pump blood through his damaged artery, and Derek felt as if his veins were scraping up against each other. "He can't do anything. My veins are literally being pumped full of wolfsbane from the injured artery. Giving me even more blood would only prolong what we both know is going to happen." Derek could swear that he saw unshed tears in his uncle's eyes as the vampire pulled him closer to him so that he could be close to someone as he died. The darkness was starting to come back around the edges of his vision and his heart was beating at a snail's pace.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Klaus approaching him and his uncle, and he instantly tried to move so that he could somehow protect his uncle from the Original hybrid. Stefan also tensed up upon noticing that Klaus was drawing closer to the two of them, awaiting the other man to try and attack or even further punish the two of them. When Klaus placed his hand on Derek's forehead the werewolf tensed, awaiting punishment or even another form of torture which had yet to be delivered to him yet in his life. Derek blinked, and upon opening his eyes he couldn't help but to allow a gasp to escape his mouth.

Derek's Mind

Right in front of him was the very place which Damon had taken Derek, who had been all of five when the werewolf had been forced to experience his very first full moon without his pack. The vampire who had no emotions to speak of had taken him to an area which had been nothing but forest. The vampire had gone out of his way to ensure that there would be no harm done to him after the damage which had been done to him by his own pack. Damon had told him that it had been so that the two of them wouldn't get discovered by a lone hunter or annoy the people living in the floor below. Derek had known better and even Damon, he's pretty sure knew that it had been the first sign of his emotions, which Damon would deny with every ounce of his being had not been the case. The fact had been though that Damon had treated every single person with disdain and with no small amount of hatred. That none of this hatred had ever been focused on the child who had been brought to his own door less than a month before. These were the things which made the nondescript forest the first happy memory with Damon and he could not be surprised that this was where his mind brought him.

"An interesting place. Some people would think of a much more elaborate place in their last moments." Derek's head turned quickly to face the hybrid who was standing just off to the side of where he had been lost in his own memory. Rather than choosing to fight in what were the very last moments of his life he looked to Klaus with a calm that only a dying man could have. "This is the place where my father took me for my first turn without my pack, it's where we first really connected, he did not want to become attached to me. They abandoned me, my pack. " The shock on Klaus' face upon hearing that his pack had abandoned him was a weird look for Klaus, Derek doubted that the hybrid was surprised very often. "They gave me up because of a ruling from a council, but I'm not going to talk about my biological family while I'm dying." The two men paused before Derek chose to sit down upon the grass which was slightly damp and was surprised when the hybrid chose to sit down next to him without a word. "Why exactly did you choose to give me relief from my own self-flagellation as I coughed up the blood inside of my body?" A smirk flashed across Klaus' face before it went away just as quickly as it had come. "My youngest brother died because of a werewolf, Henrik and I chose to watch the wolves and it resulted in his own death. I thought that I could give you some relief that I was unable to give my own brother."

"You're doing this for a person who warned each and every one of the werewolf packs in your path that you were coming. How does that make any sense at all?" The other man scoffed upon hearing Derek's question which he was obviously using to try and mock the hybrid. Because he was dying so what else could there be that the hybrid could manage to do to him in his last moments of death? "I understand why you chose to save these werewolf packs. I am highly annoyed, but I understand as to why you actually chose to rescue them from having to be neither a werewolf or even a vampire."

"A fate which I am going to share with you."

"If it makes it any better, I don't think that I was really going to kill you. I was more interested in the fact that you had managed to both evade and keep these wolves from my grasp for so long." Derek nodded, letting the other man know that he had heard what had been said. "How close am I to death?" Klaus seemed to pause for a moment before telling Derek that he had maybe less than two minutes to live, three at the most. "Please don't punish Stefan for the fact that we are related, he had no idea in regard to the werewolves." Klaus showed confusion on his face upon hearing how Derek was choosing to talk to him. "You talk as if you are going to permanently die. You do realize that you will be brought back to life because of my blood? Don't you?" Derek paused for a moment, clearly trying to figure out what exactly he wanted to say to Klaus, because the words would likely be his last.

"How many werewolves have you tried to turn?" And how many of them were of a different breed Derek thought inwardly to himself as the darkness began to close around him and he died with the image of a green forest and a hybrid in his mind. But luckily there was no pain in the last moment which he had, he only wished that his father had been there, because no one could comfort him as well as his father. But Klaus had done a very good job.

Smoky Mountains, Tennessee

As Klaus closed Derek's eyes he looked almost remorseful at the death of Derek Salvatore, but Stefan could not see past the fact that the man had been somewhat responsible for the death of his nephew. "Before you try and blame me for the fact that Derek Salvatore is dead remember the fact that the man died saving you, so don't damage his memory with possibilities that never can happen or be done again." Stefan paused upon hearing the hybrid speak, mainly because of the fact that upon hearing the man talk he realized that the man was actually somewhat remorseful that Derek had died. "You were going to kill him anyway."

"No. I don't think that I really was going to kill him. The fact that he managed to keep all of those werewolves away from the two of us is a feat not easily accomplished. More likely I would have asked him to help in showing me how to get werewolves under many different alphas to unite under myself. Fear only goes so far." The shock on Stefan's face was quickly wiped off by the surprise which the sudden movement of Ray caused. Looking to Klaus he was not surprised when he was told to chase the hybrid, getting bit only moments later was the icing on the fucking cake.

Lower on the Smoky Mountains

"The very fact that we have been unable to locate Derek is making me very nervous. That kid has been able to hear things sometimes even when I was unable to hear them. If he is waiting somewhere just to try and scare me I'm going to stab him in the side." The chuckle which could be heard from Alaric helped in calming Damon down somewhat but the sound of the disapproval which came from Elena only served to annoy him even further. "You would stab your friend in the side?!" Smirking upon hearing the question which had been directed his way Damon tried to think of something which would really get her annoyed and settled on a response. "Oh, you're never really friends with anyone until you stab them somewhere on the body. That's why me and Ric are such good friends, we have tons of practice." Damon could literally feel the smile which came from Alaric and could practically see the glare which was being sent his way by Elena. Any chance of a verbal response though was dealt with when the man who was already shifting before the full moon jumped through the trees nearly taking out his throat in the process. The worry which he was feeling for Derek was intensifying by the moment as both he and Ric attempted to tie up the werewolf without getting bitten in the process.

Damon heard none of the protests from Elena as he looked into the face of the werewolf which was screaming and yelling out in pain. The face that he was seeing was not the face of the werewolf whose name was unknown to him, but the face of Derek.

"Damon come on! Derek will be fine, but we need to get out of here!" The voice of Ric was the one which really brought him back to the real world. Choosing to run rather than to allow himself to be killed was one of the better decisions which he had chosen to make today. When not even halfway down the mountain the werewolf came after them, and even though he was being chased by a wolf which could result in his death the fact that he could get away from Elena was something that outweighed the bad.

Everything really did not get exciting until his brother showed up keeping the man from ripping out his throat when he chose to remove his heart.

"Nice meeting you here." When Stefan looked to him there was something which was off and Damon who had known his brother for over a hundred years could tell that it was killing him.

"What part of not following me, and leaving me alone did you not get?" Damon scoffed upon hearing the question which his brother had voiced, honestly did his brother even think that after what he had said about Derek that he would not have come. "You threatened the man who is my son. What made you think that there was any way in hell that I would not come after him?" An emotion flashed across his younger brother's face which vanished too quickly for him to be able to tell exactly what it had been. But the body language which Stefan had shown clearly let him know that something had happened.

"Where is Derek, Stefan?" The fact that his brother refused to look him in the eye said everything which meant that whatever he was concealing was monumental. He vamped over to the form of his younger brother shoving him up against the nearest tree, both anger and concern taking over in his effort to figure out what exactly had happened to his son. "Damon…" The fact that his younger brother was trying in every single way to avoid talking about Derek was making the panic and the concern even worse as even now Stefan still refused to look his elder brother in the eye. Damon continued to stare down Stefan, knowing that he could wait much longer than his younger brother could because of whatever Klaus would do to Stefan should the younger vampire fail to return with the body of Ray.

"He's dead, Damon."

Out of all of the thoughts which had been running through Damon's head, this was the last one which he had been hoping against hope not to be true. Damon said nothing as his hands slid down from his brother's body, falling to his knees in the realization that his son who he had raised for eighteen years had ceased living. That his heart no longer beat, and that he would never see that wide smile that only the people closest to Derek were allowed to see. Derek had yet to meet Alaric yet, and he had yet to even live, which was what seemed to break Damon's heart even more. The sorrow which had been overwhelming suddenly vanished as he realized that the death of Derek was not accidental, and he shoved his younger brother hard against another tree causing a loud creaking noise to resonate through the forest.

"HE DID NOTHING TO YOU! DID YOU KILL HIM OR DID KLAUS! BECAUSE I SWEAR IF YOU KILLED HIM STEFAN!" A quick punch to his face only served to make him even more angry but every bit of anger was quickly gone upon listening to what his younger brother was trying to tell him and had been trying to tell him during his entire rant which had without a doubt probably made Klaus aware of his presence.

"HE HAS KLAUS' BLOOD IN HIS SYSTEM!" The sentence made him pause. The fact that his son might be able to come back was a blessing, but the fact that his son might not was a factor which made him pause. "Who. Killed. Him."

"A human who was aiming for me. Derek managed to get between me and the stake which was meant for my heart. The man had dipped it in wolfsbane and it nicked an artery close to his heart so that the wolfsbane was pumped through his heart. There was no way to heal him, in the end he felt no pain." Damon's face hardened upon hearing the fact that his son had been in absolutely no pain in the end. "How could you possibly know that he felt no pain in the end Stefan." Damon seemed to spit out his younger brother's name as he asked the question, obviously outraged at how the death of Derek had been allowed to happen. "Klaus. He, was never going to kill Derek. Klaus even seemed upset after his death because he said that he would have liked to get Derek's advice on gaining werewolf loyalty which Derek had seemed to gain." Damon smirked upon hearing the loyalty of the werewolf part before focusing on the fact that Klaus had entered Derek's mind to take away the pain. Why would he have done that was the main thought in his head. Another question was on the tip of Damon's tongue, but it was interrupted by the sound of Stefan's phone which began to ring, interrupting any and all questions which Damon might have asked.

"Yes. I just found Ray's body. I'll be there shortly." Stefan hung up the phone and then leaned down to pick up Ray off of the ground, looking to Damon with a look which showed exactly how much he regretted the death of Derek. But regret was nothing. The fact that Derek was dead was something which could not be reversed. Damon was about to tell Stefan this when Stefan got a text message, Klaus more than likely. Stefan situated the dead hybrid's body on his shoulder before looking to his phone, and the look on his face terrified Damon. Stefan looked up to Damon with a look which left no room for a positive interpretation.

"Klaus says that Derek has yet to wake up Damon. All of the other werewolves went rabid after waking up. Klaus kept the human alive so that Derek would be able to drain the man dry upon waking up, but he has yet to wake. You need to prepare yourself for the possibility of the fact that because he is a different breed of werewolf he may not wake up Damon." Damon merely nodded not looking to his brother even as the younger Salvatore placed a piece of paper with his cell number in his pocket. The elder Salvatore never moved, even as his younger brother left Damon felt as if his whole entire world was falling apart.

Higher up on the Smoky Mountains

Klaus felt like he wanted to tear up each and every single tree in this entire wood. The entire pack of wolves had gone rabid, and the one person who he actually felt some remorse for the death of had yet to wake up. The sound of Stefan pounding through the brush was the only sound that warned him that he was coming. The dead body of Ray which Stefan carried with him was something which served to only discourage him even more. None of these werewolves which he had tried to turn had survived, none of the ones from before Tennessee and none of these werewolves had survived. Not even the werewolf whose name was Salvatore which was a confusion in itself having a werewolf which bore the Salvatore name.

"Has Derek woken up yet?" Klaus looked to the dead body of the raven-haired Salvatore and then looked back to Stefan. "Yes, but he's just pretending to be asleep wake up Derek." Stefan glared at Klaus, but the look was slightly lessened by the fact that he had an enormous werewolf bite on his forearm. Noticing the fact that he had yet to heal Stefan Klaus bit into his hand before giving some of his blood to the vampire so that his werewolf bite would heal. Just as the two were walking away Klaus remembered that he had yet to kill the human who he had literally used as a blood bag. As he was walking over to break the man who had killed the youngest Salvatore he heard a huge gasp of someone drawing in air. Jerking his head to look around he saw a sight which made him smile.

Of course, Derek Salvatore had managed to survive. Derek bolted up into a sitting position which brought the attention of Stefan who had been staring at Klaus in the distance. Stefan vamped over not caring in the slightest whether Klaus thought him weak or soft for caring about his nephew as he kneeled down next to Derek in the dirt supporting him so that he could sit up. "Look who arrived at the party late." Derek coughed twice before taking the time to look around, noticing all of the dead bodies and the human who looked as if he had been used as a chew toy, which Derek supposed that he had been. "Some party, all of your guests are dead." This caused the hybrid to laugh which made Derek wince because of the sudden noise which was hell on the even more intensified hybrid hearing which he was having to deal with. "Not all of them, thought that you were dead mate." Derek stood up with Stefan's help, but he couldn't help but notice the horrible ache which was making every single outside force seem like background noise. Vaguely he thought that he heard the sound of Stefan and Klaus talking.

"It's the hunger, it's already starting to take its toll on him, it might be because of the fact that when he died there was barely any blood left at all in his own body because of the internal bleeding." Derek barely noticed the sound of the two talking upon hearing the resounding beating of a heartbeat which Derek heard in the same vicinity as the three of them. And that's when Derek vamped over to where the human who was sitting slumped down on the ground and bit into his neck. The first taste of the man's blood was euphoric but there was a constant beating which was annoying him as he continued to drain the blood from the man's body. The sound of his heart beating slower and slower alarmed Derek until he realized that it was the man's heart and pulled his mouth away from the man's neck. Derek looked to the man who was groaning slightly, and he pouted realizing that he would be unable to drink anymore of the man's blood without killing him, then shook his head. Where did that thought come from?

Thinking back to the man who was laying slumped up against the tree when he had nearly drained him dry he moved the man's head side to side checking to make sure that he was still alive. The sound of someone walking up behind him caused him to turn quickly and growl at the person who turned out to be Klaus who had been approaching. The man was looking to the human who had practically been drained of all of his blood with a look of shock which made Derek feel awful. "I didn't mean to almost kill him. I'm sorry." The look on Klaus' face confused him, it was not one of anger which he suspected but one of confusion. "The fact that you were able to keep yourself from killing the first person that you fed on without any other vampire or human being helping you speaks volumes to your control as a werewolf." Derek kept Klaus' gaze as he stood up once again wincing at all of the blood which covered his entire shirt and the front of his face he realized with a wince. Luckily, he had all of the clothing which he had packed in his Camaro. Then his heart stopped, Klaus more than likely was not going to let him leave, the man who was still looking at the man who had served as a human blood bag would be very unlikely to allow the first successful hybrid to go on his way.

"How likely is it that you will allow me to go on my own way after being turned into a hybrid?" Klaus smirked in Derek's direction upon hearing the question and Derek knew the answer to his question before Klaus had even opened his mouth. "Not likely at all mate. Considering that you are my very first successful hybrid. At least so far, we have the journey down the mountain to see if you turn rabid on us." Derek groaned aloud upon hearing what the decision was going to be, because even though he had known that he was going to have to stay with them he had somewhat been hoping for a different one. And he did not know how to tell Klaus that the reason behind him being a successful hybrid so far, he really hoped that he did not turn rabid. Maybe it was because of the fact that he was a different breed of werewolf when he was turned. "Well you need to know that there is no way in any shape or form that I will leave my car behind." Klaus smirked before vamping over to stand in front of Derek and looking him straight in the eyes.

"You can have your car but if you even try and leave I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and torture you for a thousand years. Understood?" Derek stood there, shocked beyond belief that Klaus was going to allow him to have his car. He was overjoyed, but still very much surprised. "Where exactly are we going by the way?" Stefan's question was one that Derek had been about to voice but he was glad that someone was going to voice it because Derek would rather not go travel somewhere without knowing exactly where he was going to be ending up. "Don't worry about that you'll find out exactly where we're going when we get there." Derek glared at the back of Klaus' head and continued the glare even after Klaus had turned around to look at the new hybrid. Stefan looked nervous at how Derek seemed to be willing to test the Original hybrid so much, and it was making him nervous because Derek had been that ever since he had been a child under Damon. "Do I need to kiss you to give you a proper reason to follow me?" Derek smirked before responding in the next moment that he would need a lot more than just a kiss to be inclined to follow Klaus with a blind obedience.

"We'll get to that eventually." The sound of his uncle spluttering upon hearing what the hybrid had said made Derek grin broadly as the three of them headed down the mountain. When they reached Derek's car Klaus stared for a moment before looking to Derek once again. "This is your car?" The look which Derek sent Klaus clearly showed that if Klaus had anything horrible to say about his car that he should keep it to himself. "There's another Salvatore that has a Camaro as well…" Derek smirked in response to what Klaus had to say about his own choice of car, his father had been a slight influence as to his own choice of car, but he would never let Klaus or Damon know that. Damon mainly because of the fact that if he allowed his father to know then he would never allow his son to live it down.

"The man has good taste then. Besides, I'm not the only man in the world that owns a black Camaro." Klaus knocked the window with his knuckle. "You're probably one of the very few men who owns bullet proof windows though."

"Yes, I am one of very few. Occupational hazard, you understand." Stefan coughed catching Klaus' attention while Derek changed his shirt to a blood red V-neck that wasn't covered completely in blood like his black one had been. The old shirt he merely tossed into a trash bag in the trunk of his car which he kept for every single time that some supernatural creature or hunter ended up destroying another piece of his wardrobe. Honestly if he had never had the enormous fortune which Damon gave him along with the money from his family which had died then he would have been completely out of clothes a long time ago.

The three of them waited around a few moments longer to ensure the fact that Derek was not going to go rabid and when he still had not gone rabid after using normal speed to walk down the mountain Klaus seemed very frustrated. "The fact that you have still not gone rabid is both very good along with very frustrating. The fact that you cannot be compelled could be a contributing factor. Follow both Stefan and me in the truck and don't try running." Derek rolled his eyes upon hearing the last end of the sentence, he was not stupid enough to try running away from Klaus. Getting a text message off to Damon however…

"Whatever, let's get going." Derek looked to Stefan as if he was expecting his uncle to try and hitch a ride with him rather than with Klaus, but his uncle never spoke up much to his surprise. Which didn't really bother him because of the fact that he could be very broody even without putting his mind to it. When Derek had been broody in youth Damon had quickly gotten rid of that habit telling him that he was going to end up wasting his life away.

Climbing into the Camaro was a relief. The first thing which he did was hook up his phone to his car and sent off a text to his father. The fact that he was alive and not rabid was something which was confusing the hell out of both him and Klaus, he was just grateful that he had survived. No matter how miraculous it was. What concerned Derek though was the relevance of the tattoo that one of the werewolves had talked of. When his family had died he had gotten the tattoo as a dedication to them, even though the times which they had met were both far and few between. As far as he knew there were only two members of his family left, one which was in a coma and the other who lived somewhere else, the only thing he knew was that the tattoo was a part of his families' crest. But why was the tattoo or even the symbol so important to the werewolf community? That was going to be part of his items to investigate during the long ass journey with Klaus he knew that he would end up being part of. The sound of his phone going off alerted him and he sent a quick text off after declining the call telling Damon that he could not speak.

Damon: You had better the first moment that you are available call me. I don't care what you have to do! I want to talk to you.  
Derek: I love you dad  
Damon: You're a hybrid now?  
Derek: Yeah. I am.  
Damon: I love you

It was with this last message that Derek and Damon ceased texting so that Derek would not end up getting caught by Klaus who had apparently been talking to Stefan. Taking the moment to test if he was the same as before the transformation Derek pulled his claws out, and he was overjoyed when it was not anything like what he had heard transforming was like for Klaus' breed of werewolf. Then looking to the mirror, he revealed the eyes which he had had before the transformation and was relieved to see the cobalt blue eyes which his constant companion these last eighteen years of his life had been. This was going to be an interesting trip, but in all reality, he wished that he could be back in Mystic Falls with his father, or even better back home in New York, or even at the villa in Italy.

The starting up of an engine alerted Derek to Klaus and Stefan being ready to leave the mountains, and with a dread about what was to come. Derek pulled away from where he had been parked, following both Klaus and Stefan to wherever this hellish trip was going to lead.


	3. Wolves

Boarding House

When Damon's phone rang he quickly answered it leaving the bottle of bourbon which he had been drinking in abundance since the whole ordeal with Derek being turned into a hybrid. The drinking had gotten to be so much that even Alaric, Alaric of all people had told him that he should slow down with the drinking just in case they found anything out about the whereabouts of Derek and Stefan. The comment had lessened the drinking which he had been choosing to do but he still drank the usual amount of bourbon, and Ric who was currently camped upstairs in the room next to his was making sure that he wasn't overdoing it. Upon answering his phone he realized very quickly that it was not Derek who was calling to make him feel better about the fact that his son had actually died of internal bleeding.

"You miss me?" Damon groaned upon hearing the sound of Katherine's voice, honestly he wanted to hear the voice of his son so badly that it was driving him insane. And the voice of the vampire doppelgänger only served to make him angry because of the reminder of how much time he wasted. How much time he wasted in trying to get her out of the tomb to use the resources she may have. The resources he had tried using to find Derek when he had been missing had turned up nothing, and Katherine had never shared any of her vampire sources during his time as a human. Katherine only reminded him of time wasted and anger at how she had played him. Damon still had no idea as to where his son had been for all of that time.

Then suddenly it hit him that Katherine, as someone who was constantly running from Klaus. Would more than likely know exactly where the man was located, and more importantly Derek. "Where are you Katherine?"

"Lurking outside your window." Damon was not listening to her own taunt at the moment though, listening into the background trying to hear any clues as to where she may possibly be. "I'm homesick. What've I missed?" Damon realized that she must have been talking to him about something, so he quickly tried to come up with something to say to her. "Well some of us around here are trying to figure out exactly where Stefan and Klaus are but none of us are having all that much luck. Which is becoming a constant annoyance really. Especially since Elena thinks that she is the only one that will be able to save him from his broody self."

"I'm sure that the fact that your brother is in an entire different state than you has been nothing but a good thing. Because then you can find some way to move in on his girlfriend and stop looking for him." Damon laughed upon hearing the statement which came from Katherine. Honestly the last thing that he wanted was to get together with Elena. Maybe originally when he had first met her but then when he realized that Elena had begun to play the two of them or attempted to him realized that it was not worth the struggle. There was someone else that he was far more interested in actually, and there was also the fact that Derek had told him not to be fooled by a pretty face, and he usually listened pretty well to anything that his son had to say.

"I don't know where Stefan or Klaus are. If I did do you think that I would be standing around here in Mystic Falls?" The pause on the other end of the phone was one which Damon immediately jumped upon. The bitch totally knew exactly where Derek, Stefan, and Klaus where. "You're trailing them, aren't you? You're trailing the hybrid that wants you dead and Stefan?"

"A hybrid who wants me dead, accompanied by the oddly familiar new baby hybrid both capable of killing me with a single bite? Please, I couldn't be any further away from them Damon. But I did hear something about the fact that Klaus pitched a fit when all but one of his hybrids turned rapid and died. He wants to create more than one hybrid Damon. He's looking for answers."

"So now you're looking out for my brother? And the wayward hybrid which Klaus managed to somehow make?" Damon was nervous as he asked the question. Because there had been no contact between Katherine and him because of the fact that he had not known that she had not been in the tomb. Along with the fact that while Derek was growing up his search for Katherine had been somewhat on a stall, until his son had gone missing anyway. Then every effort had gone towards getting Katherine out. Getting Katherine out as soon as every effort by him and source had been used. And had amounted to nothing.

He sincerely hoped that Katherine knew nothing of his relation to Derek but knowing his luck she would be able to use his relation to Derek to her own advantage. "I'm not sure, I'm very conflicted as to whether I'm going to look out for your brother, and considering I have no connection to the wayward baby hybrid I most certainly will not be looking out for him." Damon nearly breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing those words coming from her mouth, because it meant that she very likely knew very few things about Derek and his relation to both Damon and Stefan. Otherwise she would be trying to use him as a bargaining chip for Klaus. Especially if she found out that probably the only reason that Derek survived was the fact that he was a totally different breed of werewolf, or it could be attributed to Derek's lineage but there would have to be more research.

"Where is he Katherine?" The vampire on the other line of the phone paused before telling him that he would never guess where the three men had ended up, and upon hearing the place Damon had to groan. Of all of the places Chicago had to be the one that Klaus had taken Stefan to.

Chicago

Derek groaned when the three of them finally stopped in Chicago, he remembered when Damon and he had come to Chicago someone had nearly killed the two of them, hunters. And there was the obvious history which his uncle and the town had. Approaching Klaus and Stefan he heard the tail end of a conversation which was focused upon the talk of blood and blacked out memory. "Blacked out memory huh, sounds like a crazy party which I had when I was fifteen. Dad was not happy." Klaus smirked upon hearing the mention of a good party and Derek smirked upon seeing the wince upon Stefan's face. Obviously because the man remembered the time that Damon had called him ranting, about having to raise a teenager that seemed to have an affinity for getting involved in the worst parties. Stefan had told his brother that it was probably payback for all of the things he did as a teenager. Damon had said nothing for a moment before yelling BLOODY HELL, IF THERE IS ANY MERCY IN THIS WORLD THIS WILL NOT BE FUCKING BLOODY KARMA FOR ME before hanging up the phone. "But no, seriously Klaus why did you have to choose Chicago? Why not New York? At least then I wouldn't have to visit a place where I was nearly killed." Derek then yawned after finishing the comment, he needed more caffeine. Anything to keep him from sleeping. Sleeping meant dreaming, and dreaming meant reliving nightmares which were reality. The expression on Klaus' face went from one of amusement to one of was that anger? And then concern upon seeing the younger hybrid yawning.

"You need to sleep mate. After this all of us will get a hotel and have a rest."

The concern which Klaus continued to show for Derek was confusing in the least. Because the concern did not appear to just be for his only successful hybrid because Klaus was constantly asking questions about Derek on the drive to Chicago almost as if he wanted to get to know Derek. The man luckily had been asking more about his own character and not about his nephew's father, or about the enormous intake of caffeine and complete lack of sleep. Because he had no idea as to what Klaus would do when he figured out that Damon was Derek's father. But hearing the comment from Klaus about resting nearly caused a panic attack. Derek wanted to stay as far away from any bed as possible, and he really desired a change of subject and nearly sighed in relief upon getting that wish.

"We came to Chicago because of the fact that there is a witch here who can assist me in figuring out the very reason as to why you are my only successful hybrid." Derek was concerned upon hearing this because what was Klaus going to do once he heard about the fact that he was a different breed of werewolf? Or maybe it was his own heritage that had aided in giving him the ability to survive as a hybrid. "What's the name of the witch that we're going to see?" Stefan's comment brought Derek from his own thoughts as the three of them started walking in the direction of a bar. "Gloria. She's a witch that you were very well acquainted with during the twenties." Derek took note of this as the three of them continued to head over towards the bar, the concern and nervousness for his own welfare growing with every step that brought him closer and closer to the witch Gloria. She would notice his troubling behavior more than likely. And then his father would get wind of it. The amount of dread Derek had grew as they grew closer and closer to their destination.

Mystic Falls

"Yes, Ric he is alive, but we need to get to Chicago because I have no idea as to how long they're going to remain in Chicago. And there is also the fact that he is a hybrid, but he is not of the same breed as Lockmutt." Alaric was taking the facts in as Damon was walking around the bedroom which he was using in the boarding house, Alaric who was packing enough clothes just so that he would have a change of clothes for tomorrow realized that Elena would probably end up being an addition to their group. "You do know that Elena is going to end up being an addition to this very group, don't you? The fact that she hasn't already made an appearance today mystifies me. And have you any word in regard to where your son was for two years?" Almost as if on command the sound of the front door opening and closing resounded throughout the boarding house. Interrupting any comment Damon may have responded with. "Speak of the devil, and she will appear." Damon groaned, realizing that there was no way now that Elena would not be going with them to Chicago, but then realized that she could be used as Stefan bait.

"Don't worry, we can use her as Stefan bait." Ric glared at the elder Salvatore as he said this while walking out his bedroom door. "Please don't get Elena killed Damon." Damon chose not to reply, rather he just smirked at the other man over his shoulder.

Chicago

Derek upon entering the bar vaguely remembered his surroundings, but he might have just been confusing it for another bar that he had seen when he had been younger. Derek had seen plenty in the beginning when Damon had still been hellbound in his search looking for Katherine. Luckily over the years it had lessened slightly up until when he had recently returned to Mystic Falls. The sight of the witch who entered the room though struck a chord with him and he instantly knew that he had been in this very bar before, it had probably been the trip that Damon and he had been attacked.

"You got to be kidding me." When Derek heard the witch, he figured that she would be talking about him but then upon realizing that she was talking about both Klaus and Stefan he breathed slightly easier. And he couldn't help but to laugh at the horrible attempt at humor which the Original hybrid tried to make. The quick look which the woman sent Derek let him instantly know that he was in fact correct in assuming that Damon and him had been to visit her when he was younger. But it made him nervous because the witch probably had a very good idea as to why he had been able to be turned into a hybrid. And the analytical look she sent him, which he knew was her taking in his behavior.

When Stefan walked over to the bar Derek began to head over to join his uncle when Klaus asked him to join him in talking to Gloria since this would slightly concern him. Derek instantly became nervous as to how this conversation was quickly turning into a discussion about himself.

"A hybrid out to make more hybrids that news travels fast Klaus. Even more so the fact that only one of your candidates survived." The look from Klaus was murderous as Gloria talked. "If you are implying that I am inadequate in any way then you had better think again, because I did everything that I was told to do. But that's why I'm here. To figure out exactly why only one of my hybrids survived. I broke the curse." Gloria laughed aloud upon hearing the fact that Derek was the only one of the hybrids which survived, and Derek had a very strong inclination that she knew exactly why he had survived while the other werewolves had failed to do so. When the witch beckoned for him to come sit next to her he was very reluctant to do so, and upon looking over his shoulder to his uncle he noticed that Stefan was nervous as well. The only thing that got Derek over to Gloria was the fact that he knew that if he failed to do so that Klaus, as much as the man liked him would force him to do so.

" I have a very good idea as to why this werewolf survived the turning process Klaus and it has nothing to do with you breaking the curse." Derek felt a chill run through him as Gloria used her magic which seemed to run like ice through his veins. The process seemed to go on forever before Gloria told him that she was done and that he could sit back down where he was. Derek tried his best not to rush back to his seat like a child but he wanted to get as far away from Gloria and from the possible wrath of Klaus as he could. Which was why he placed himself next to Stefan over at the bar.

"So why exactly did Derek over there survive the process?" Gloria smirked, obviously trying her best to decide which would be the best way to answer Klaus' question. "First of all, that werewolf over there, Mr. Derek Salvatore is not of the same werewolf breed as you." The shock on Klaus' face upon realizing that Derek wasn't of the same breed was somewhat funny until Derek remembered that this might be his very last moment alive. Which was a somewhat sobering thought. "The second thing is that you Klaus, have created another Original hybrid inadvertently." The shock from Klaus was nowhere near the level of shock which Derek felt. Because he knew that he had been turned into a hybrid, which he had been close to dealing with. But the fact that he was an original was something else entirely that he had not at all been prepared to deal with.

"WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN THAT I HAVE CREATED ANOTHER ORIGINAL HYBRID! THERE WAS NO SPELL THERE WAS NO ENCHANTMENT!" The smirk which Gloria had upon her face was really starting to piss off Derek and if the woman did not get to the explanation part of this conversation soon then he would rip her throat out and pull her vocal chords out along with it, to hell with the consequences. "Mr. Salvatore or rather Mr. Hale here is of a lineage that has since been nearly eradicated. The Hale's are of a lineage which has an enchantment upon the members which are gifted with the ability to turn into wolves upon demand. Unlike your own werewolf gene these people can transform outside of the moon." Klaus seemed to become even more shocked by the second in regard to Derek and how he was born different than the wolves which he had become used to as a child.

"How exactly were they able to change at will?" Gloria shrugged her shoulders, the information obviously beyond her expertise. "Have no idea. But I do know that a warlock, a powerful warlock of your time was very against the fact that your family would be able to turn people into vampires, and even into hybrids. So he wanted his line to have an advantage so that they would not be weak against you. The man spoke to the spirits and created a type of spell, one which is impossible to break. One which is bound by the blood of the descendants which will remain so long as members of the family exist. The man created an enchantment that made it so that if any werewolf of the lineage was turned by any of you that they would come back as hybrids. But not just any type of hybrid. They would have the same power that your family as an original has, same strengths, same weaknesses." Klaus looked outraged and then Derek felt bad for the man when his outrage turned into a sort of disappointment.

"So, the fact remains that I was not even remotely accomplished my goal." Gloria looked to Klaus, obviously trying her best to figure out what to say which would not result in her losing the heart which was located in her chest. "You did create a hybrid, just not of the same breed which you wanted to create. Mr. Salvatore over there is just as much a hybrid as will the others if you can create them." Derek then realized that Gloria had called him by Mr. Hale at the beginning of their meeting and was nervous as to how she had known.

"How exactly did you know that I was a Hale?" Gloria smiled broadly upon hearing the question which Derek had asked her. "The man which your mother used as an emissary is related to me. I met you once when you were very young and then met you again when you were around five years old just before she took you to whoever she was trying to drop you off with." The fact that the woman failed to mention Damon when he knew for a fact that she knew that his father was Damon Salvatore was making him very suspicious along with nervous.

"His mother?" Derek and Stefan looked to the Original hybrid upon hearing him question about the woman who had given Derek up, Gloria laughed upon hearing the question which caused each of the men to narrow their eyes. "Talia Hale chose to give up her son because of the fact that he murdered someone in self-defense rather than moving her pack. Many of the supernatural community were outraged upon hearing what she chose to do. Many of her alliances with witches and vampires were severed that day." Derek smirked upon hearing this information. The fact that his mother had given him up years ago did not bother him nowhere near the amount it had when he had been five years old. But he was not going to lie when he said that it felt amazing to know that people had felt the same way that he had.

"And the man that this Talia Hale gave Derek away to? What was his opinion on the idea?" Derek realized immediately what Klaus was searching for as did every other person in the room.

"If you want to know who raised the man that you fancy you ask him yourself. I'm not going to give out anyone else's secrets." The fact that the hybrid blushed upon Gloria mentioning that Klaus fancied him made Derek smile. But he was nervous as he realized Gloria had looked at him longer than necessary upon mentioning secrets. She knew. That bitch had entered his mind. Then immediately afterwards he blanked realizing that Klaus fancied him.

"What exactly do I have to do to create my own hybrids though?" Derek saw the clear smirk which his uncle had on his face as soon as Klaus changed the subject. Clearly the hybrid was trying to avoid the fact that he fancied Derek. "You obviously did something wrong. The fact that Derek was turned into a hybrid was in relation to the lineage which he possesses, we will have to contact the original witch to get more information." The anger which Klaus was exuding made him realize that he never wanted to make the other hybrid that mad. "Or we could just make more hybrids from the Hale lineage."

"Yeah that would work except for the fact that the only one that is currently in existence is in a coma, and the other one dropped off the face of the earth." Klaus seemed to pout at this knowledge before turning around to face Gloria once again. "We'd have to contact the Original witch who is also very dead."

"Bring me Rebekah."

"Rebekah is a bit preoccupied at the moment."

"Bring me Rebekah." The groan which Klaus audibly made caused Derek to laugh which made every person in the room to turn and look at him in shock at how he would laugh at the thousand-year-old hybrid. Klaus smirked upon hearing Derek's laughter even though it was at his own expense, the laughter of the newly turned hybrid made him feel slightly better about his own situation. There had not been much laughter from Derek during the trip which he had consumed an immeasurable amount of caffeine. Which Klaus was sure would have killed a normal human being.

"All right I'll bring you Rebekah, but you had better get started immediately upon her arrival in figuring out exactly why my hybrids are all becoming rabid." Gloria spread her arms as if to say where else am I going to go you idiot which made both Stefan and Derek laugh, but made the hybrid pout.

"Aww Nik, don't worry if you're still pouting I'll kiss it better later." The shock displayed on his uncle's face made Derek walk even closer to the man than he had been earlier. Any possible chance to annoy or even get under his uncle's skin was time well spent in Derek's book.

As the group walked in a direction which Klaus was leading the hybrid seemed to be in less of a hurry than you would expect one to be in if they found they might have the solution to their hybrid problem in their grasp. "So exactly who is your father Derek?" The question which Derek had been dreading for the entirety of this trip down memory lane had finally brought itself up. "I think that I'll just keep that little tidbit to myself for a little while longer." Klaus' eyes narrowed upon hearing Derek not giving up his father's name. "Why exactly did you not reveal to me the fact that you were of a different breed of wolf than the others which I was trying to turn?" Derek was nervous as to what Klaus' reaction would be, the temper of the Original hybrid was notorious for being unpredictable.

"Well the opportunity never presented itself. What with us both shoving our tongues down each other's throats and then me getting stabbed with a wolfsbane covered stake and then coincidentally bleeding out on the forest floor." Klaus shrugged his shoulders in a way that seemed to shock Stefan, or maybe it was the lack of anger. Because according to Stefan Klaus had a mean streak which would rear its ugly head at the most inopportune moments. "Also, why exactly are you not angrier about the fact that you weren't successful in the rest of your hybrids?" Derek was hopeful that the question wasn't going to make Klaus Mikaelson go off the rails, but he really was curious as to why the man had yet to go off the handle. From what he had been told and even researched the man was likely to fly off the handle at the drop of the hat. "The fact is that there is a solution for my hybrid problem. And I would not say that there was total failure I just failed in turning them, but luckily I did not in the case of the man that I wanted to become a hybrid."

"Because you would have felt bad if I had died."

"Exactly." The fact that the man answered the comment so quickly surprised all three people in the room, especially Derek who up until this moment had thought that Klaus had merely been playing with him. The affection of the hybrid was not unwanted, but it had been somewhat of a surprise. The fact that he was still recovering from certain events which had ended just before his werewolf search meant that he was still unused to the fact that people did not always have ulterior motives in regard to him. He knew that now even more people would have ulterior motives for him now that he was a hybrid, along with being that of an original, and who saw that coming? Everyone wanted something though, the two years had been very good evidence of this. He was afraid of when his father would inevitably find out about the issue.

"So, I am basically an original now?" Klaus snorted upon hearing the question which Derek asked him. "Of course, you would ask that question, not the one about why I would have not been overjoyed." Derek and Stefan both snorted upon hearing the statement which came from the other hybrid's mouth. "Yes. You are an original now. Don't let it go to your head Derek. Being an original is a prestigious position." The laughter which could be heard from Derek brought smiles to both Klaus and Stefan's faces, upon hearing the utter and complete joy which was coming from the newly turned hybrid. Then the man's face turned serious all of a sudden which brought the attention of both Stefan and Klaus.

"Never lie to me. If you respect me, you will never lie to me. I was lied to when I was a child before my pack gave me up and if you respect me you will never lie to me." And taken advantage of for two years as well, but no one needed to know this. Klaus looked to Derek for a moment before blinking once, then twice. Stefan was looking to the hybrid curious as to how Klaus was going to answer, because the man was over a thousand years old there was no way that he was going to agree to the man's request.

"I give you my word that I will never lie to you. I may withhold information if it does not pertain, but I will never lie to you about anything. I give you my word Derek." Derek seemed to be relieved about the fact that the hybrid was willing to agree to something as difficult as this. And Klaus obviously took notice of the relief. The elder hybrid was curious as to what was affecting the younger original so drastically.

"So, who is this Rebekah?" Klaus smirked at both Stefan and Derek upon hearing this question.

Somewhere else in Chicago

"Stefan chose to live in a place like this?" Alaric laughed upon hearing Elena's question, but he laughed even more upon hearing the explanation which Damon gave for his brother living there. An all-girls school around the corner. "It figures that Stefan would live there, let me guess there was an attendance problem due to a certain ripper tearing out teenage girls' throats?" The nod from Damon as he ripped of the handle of the apartment door was enough of an answer apparently as the door swung open and revealed the dusty remains of a long-forgotten apartment. One which Stefan had probably compelled into his ownership back during the twenties, meaning that it would still be under his ownership.

"He obviously hasn't been here." Damon rolled his eyes upon hearing the statement, the three people had been in Chicago for less than a day and Elena was shocked that Stefan had not been around his old apartment. "Elena the three men have been here less than twenty-four hours, it's not very shocking that the three of them have not been by Stefan's old Jekyll and Hyde apartment." Alaric seemed just as exasperated by the attitude which Elena was expressing. "Have you heard anything else from Derek by the way?" Derek who was about to speak up was rudely interrupted by the sound of Elena's voice.

"Who exactly is Derek?" Damon almost groaned audibly upon realizing that at this moment in time the only people in Mystic Falls that knew of Derek's existence were Alaric and Stefan. "Derek is someone who is very important to me that recently got turned into a hybrid." The shock upon Elena's face was worth it. Damon couldn't decide whether she was more shocked about the fact that he had a friend other than Alaric, or that he was on good terms with someone other than Ric. "Derek is my son. My son whom I haven't seen in over two years."The shock from earlier was nothing compared to the shock from Elena hearing that Derek was his son.

"How is this Derek guy your son? I thought that it was impossible to have children when you are a vampire." The shock Damon realized even further was combined with the fact that Stefan and she had been having unprotected sex he realized with a laugh. "You have nothing to worry about Ms. Gilbert, the fact that he is my son is based upon the fact that I adopted him when he was five years old from another member of my family. "You have members of your family which are werewolves?"

"Yeah. Many of them burned in a fire about seven years ago. Only two survived, Laura Hale and Peter Hale. Peter is in a coma and Laura, well Laura was never one for communication with her brother. She always bought into the fact that her brother was shameful on her family. And she is an alpha, so she wouldn't want to talk with the competition." The confusion upon both Alaric and Elena's face reminded him of the fact that it was not very well known that there was more than one breed of werewolf. "There is more than one breed of werewolf which in the world. Derek is of a different breed than Lockmutt." The look which he received from Elena was one which made him smirk at her before focusing on more important matters. "Laura was never that good of a person in regard to Derek because she bought into the fact that Derek should be ignored but Peter was a man who I could get along with. I even called and talked to him more than once in the early years with questions about Derek. He was also the only one who never cared what the rest of the pack thought and would visit Derek frequently over the years." Alaric who had seemed interested in his story was now focused upon the shelf which was holding all of the liquor in the apartment. Damon upon noticing the attention which Ric had upon the shelf smirked. And then steadily approached it, activating the hidden pressure button on the side which would release the shelf from the wall.

"Wow. Stefan is such a villain, he hid his best liquor so that no one would steal it from the shady apartment that he had." Damon smirked upon hearing that even Elena realized that even the doppelgänger realized how shady the apartment which Stefan had compelled himself was. "Take a closer look Elena." Alaric seemed to notice that there was something else beyond the shelf, but it took Elena another looks for her to notice the fact that there was a list of names written on the wall behind the shelf which had even more alcohol hidden. Elena's face had a look of horror as soon as she realized what exactly those names were. "Are those the names of Stefan's victim's?" A nod from Damon confirmed the horror which Elena in her desire to believe that Stefan was always a saint had been reluctant to believe which showed in her next statement.

"Well it's not like you were the pillar of good behavior. I doubt that you were paving the way for woman's liberation back during the twenties, right?" The self-righteous behavior was making Damon question what exactly he had originally seen in Elena. The fact that she was constantly controlling in the fact that she didn't want him feeding off of live people, which he left alive by the way thank you very much was example number one. He could very well feed off of people if he truly desired, the fact that Stefan could not feed off of people successfully was his own problem not Damon's. "Listen just because Stefan was a cocky ripper douche does not mean that I could not successfully avoid him in the city of Chicago which is a big and incredibly enormous city." As Damon was walking away from Elena he motioned for Alaric to follow him out the door and to leave Elena in the apartment where she would be perfectly safe away from Stefan and Klaus. There was no need to worry about Derek what with him having had self-control mastered for the most part by the age of seven years old.

"Wait. Where are the two of you leaving me?"

"We, as in Alaric and myself are going to check out Stefan's old stomping grounds. You, need to stay here so that we do not have to worry about Klaus and or even Stefan seeing you." Elena crossed her arms in an act of defiance, but surprisingly she did not put up any effort other than this which made Damon suspicious. As the two men walked out of the room Damon told Alaric to keep an eye out for Elena, who Damon would not put it past to try and sneak out of the apartment to try and fail at following them.

"Try and whip up a plan that could possibly work before we get back." Damon smirked as he left the door. Mainly because he could practically feel the glare which the young doppelgänger was sending his way.

Warehouse in Chicago

"That doesn't make sense why don't I remember you?" Derek held back yet another groan upon hearing his uncle asking Klaus yet another question which the older hybrid would choose not to answer. Sleep deprivation was making Derek's temper shorter and shorter by the moment. Which his uncle was truly testing right now. "You said it yourself that you had a lot of black holes from that time." The next time that Stefan spoke up Derek could not prevent himself from groaning aloud upon hearing the same exact question being repeated. He was going to put a stop to this if it was the last thing that he did.

"I SWEAR THAT IF ONE OF YOU CONTINUES WITH THE SAME FUCKING LINE OF QUESTIONING, THAT I AM GOING TO BREAK MY OWN NECK JUST TO ESCAPE THIS ENDLESS TORTURE!" The entire warehouse went quiet except for the sound of a man running towards them, and Derek could not help but to roll his eyes upon hearing the sound of footsteps. Moving quickly over towards the noise of the feet he stopped just in front of the man. "You didn't hear anything. Your regular boring job was not interrupted by the noise of three men arguing." The man's eyes went glassy from the compulsion. Which Derek placed the man under and Derek sighed a sigh of relief upon getting the compulsion right. Turning around to see two identical looks of amazement from both Klaus and Stefan brought him an immense amount of relief. Honestly if he had been forced to go through one more moment of the two men's roundabout question and lack of an answer he would have broken his neck. When the amazed look on Klaus' face had still yet to vanish after a long moment he began to be a little unnerved.

"What is going on with your face? What is with the impressed looks? The fact that I compelled a man is not that big of a deal." Klaus simply shrugged his shoulders upon hearing the question from Derek, and Stefan merely kept looking at Derek. The look which he was receiving was almost like that of an animal being studied. The younger hybrid barely kept the urge to fidget under wraps. Because what was the look which Stefan was giving him? "The reason why the two of us, or at least I am surprised, is because of the restraint which you have been showing since you have been turned. Excluding the first time that you fed then you have had complete restraint in regard to feeding and not getting out of control. But you may want sleep to ensure your control remains constant." Derek looked at both Klaus and Stefan as if the two of them had each grown a second head each. While trying not to flinch upon hearing the mention of sleep. Stefan was looking at Derek as if he was some sort of abnormal creature. Which Derek supposed that he was considering that he was both a werewolf and a vampire at the same time. But Derek knew that the fact that he was one of only two Original hybrids in the entire world and in history to be behind the look which he was receiving right now.

"How did you manage to pull yourself back when you began to feed on that man in the mountains? A man who was already practically drained of blood and weakened by the fact that however many other hybrids had fed on him?" The instant Stefan had finished asking his question Derek immediately knew what was wrong. The fact that Stefan was always at the risk of being a ripper. In addition to the fact that he had never been able to control his bloodlust even when Derek had been a child made more sense in regard to the look now. Stefan was curious as to how he had controlled himself, because if a newborn hybrid could then Stefan figured that he might be able to take notes and maybe better his own self-restraint. Derek felt bad for the fact that the reason as to why he had such self-restraint and self-control was not a recent occurrence. Derek looked to Klaus with a nervous glance before looking to his uncle, and after taking a moment to breath in a deep breath. The aspect of his lack of sleep making him harsher than usual.

"The fact that I have constantly had to keep control on how I react to certain situations, and even how I allow my emotions to affect myself all through my own childhood and even now is a factor. The fact remains that since I was around five years old I have always had to try my best to keep from revealing the fact that I am a werewolf is key to my own self-control." The look upon Klaus' own face was one of respect. The hybrid knew what it was like to have the anger and the urge to strike out when angry, but Derek had never been allowed to do this. The fact that both Damon and himself had lived in New York for a good amount of time in his youth had meant that he needed to learn restraint. Stefan may have many things to say about his brother, but Damon was one of the reasons as to why his control and his self-restraint was as good as it was.

The elder Salvatore knew what it was like to have people constantly going against you, knew what it was like to have people constantly trying to get a reaction from you as a person. To prove that you are the monster which they have made you out to be. One of the reasons as to why Derek and Damon had always gotten along as well as they did was the fact that they both embraced their monstrous side. Derek had never pretended that he did not love the fact that he was a werewolf, more powerful than most everyone around him, and neither had Damon in regard to his vampire side. And the two of them had never lied to each other about this aspect.

"From the time I was very young Stefan I had to control my own emotions and even had to use the heightened senses which I was born with. Listening to the man's heartbeat and how it began to slow down made me realize that he was dying. I listen into their own emotions and the heart which beats slower and slower with each swallow. I focus on their own mortality which feeds mine, and I don't let my emotions consume me while I feed. I relish in the fact that I enjoy feeding straight from a person's neck. But I don't let it consume me." The reaction from Stefan when Derek mentioned the fact that he enjoyed actually feeding on the men and women which he fed on to survive was like a interesting to say the least.

"You try and deny that part of yourself which truly enjoys the taste of human blood. You are in denial of what you truly are which is that you are a vampire. Until you can learn how to actually accept that you are a vampire and that you really do enjoy the taste of blood, you're never going to be able to have any control over yourself." Derek turned to look to Klaus after having said this to Stefan, not casting a second glance to the man who he had known since his early childhood. "So, who exactly is this Rebekah?" Klaus who had been totally enraptured by what Derek had been saying to Stefan had to take a moment to remember what the conversation had been about earlier. Klaus upon finally catching up to the conversation smirked before he began to walk over towards what Derek now realized to be coffins. "Rebekah, is my sister love. Someone who was completely in love with Stefan back during the twenties. When Stefan was still a ripper. She liked him much more than I did. In fact, in the beginning Stefan was one of my least favorite people." The shock on Stefan's face was priceless upon hearing the fact that he had known not one but two Original vampires during his time as a vampire. "I don't remember her." The smirk which Klaus bore upon hearing that Stefan had no recollection of Rebekah made Derek smile. There was something about the older hybrid which made him want to remain close to the man, and to remain in the man's orbit.

"Is her temper as bad as yours. Because from what I've heard, you throw some mean temper tantrums. Also, I can understand why you didn't like him. Because from what I've heard ripper Stefan can be a douche." Stefan looked back and forth from Klaus to Derek a few times. "These tantrums as you say have never had any effect on any of my nightly activities. Unlike Rebekah's." Klaus' smirk seemed to work even more towards destroying Stefan's state of mind. The fact that the two men were openly flirting seemed to bother him. Derek rolled his eyes upon noticing the look which his uncle had given the two of them as soon as Stefan had turned to look to Klaus. Honestly, the fact that his uncle thought that he had any right as to who he slept with or flirted with was hilarious. Even Damon did not have that right and the man was his father.

"But Stefan, don't tell my sister that you don't recognize her, because her temper reaches new levels in regard to anger management. Because it's about time for her to wake up now." As Klaus was saying this he pulled a dagger out from the woman who lay in the coffin's chest. Silver. Derek noted upon expanding his senses in the room, but he didn't say anything as he watched the two other men in the room watching the woman as if she was going to jump out from her coffin any second.

A Couple Hours Later…

"Honestly I don't understand why she is being so dramatic." Derek laughed upon hearing the tone in the older hybrid's voice. "Oh yeah, the fact that you placed a dagger in her chest and kept her under since the twenties would have nothing to do with the fact that she would be slightly upset." Stefan looked from Klaus to Damon, the fact that the two men were still flirting with each other seemed to be affecting Stefan more than was apparent to Derek. Which gave the man an amazing idea. Leaning in next to Klaus' ear and biting the man's ear softly before moving to the man's mouth and biting his lip leaving it bruised for the moment before it took them to heal. Then looked Klaus in the eye, ensuring that he would be focused on nothing other than his own gaze and lingering touch.

"We could always ditch Stefan. And I could find a way to help relieve some of that stress which creating hybrids is giving you." The full-blown grin which appeared on Klaus' face upon hearing the idea which the younger hybrid had suggested seemed to make his uncle's brain short circuit. Stefan's eyes had widened enough that Derek thought they were going to fall out of his head. Derek thought that Klaus was going to take him up on his offer when the sound of his uncle's voice broke the silence. "I don't believe that you and I knew each other during the twenties. How are you going to prove it?" Derek actually groaned so that his uncle would be able to hear the fact that he was beyond pissed that he was being cockblocked by his own uncle. When Klaus whispered into his ear the word later he was genuinely surprised because he had not been expecting the man to give an excuse to him.

"Truthfully Stefan your lack of trust hurts me on a spiritual level." As Klaus was saying this he placed his arm across his chest so that his hand rested on his own heart. Derek was going to punch his uncle in the face as hard as supernaturally possible later. The fact that both Klaus and himself could be having supernatural hot hybrid sex right now was pissing him off. He couldn't recall ever wanting to be with someone so badly before in his life. The fact that his wolf seemed to be reaching out to the wolf in Klaus was confusing him to no end. He had never felt such an unusual feeling, and he really wanted to discover what exactly the feeling meant. As the three of them headed towards the entrance of the warehouse Klaus placed his hand on the back of Derek's, giving it a squeeze before approaching the man who Derek had compelled earlier. Derek's wolf howled out from just the mere touch of Klaus, and it made Derek want to curl up next to Klaus and never leave the other man's presence. Derek suddenly stopped right where he was standing. What was with all of this attitude about a man that he had only met less than three days ago. Apparently, Derek had zoned out because by the time that Derek had come back to the conversation Klaus had compelled the man and the three of them were headed to God knows where.

Gloria's

Damon upon entering felt uneasy upon seeing the look which Gloria sent both Alaric and him. The fact that the witch had immediately looked up clocking the two of them as soon as they had entered made him nervous. Gloria was nervous, and Damon knew that she was, the more important factor would be as to what exactly was making such a powerful witch like Gloria nervous.

"Looks like the wind blew in the other half of the duo which I like so much." Damon's heart soared upon hearing what Gloria had said. Because the fact of the matter was that she would not have mentioned Derek if he had not been alive and well. "Are you talking about Derek, Gloria?" The witch smiled upon hearing the name of his son. The fact though was that the reason as to why Damon hated this place was that because when Derek had been younger the kid had almost died because of rogue hunters who hadn't seemed to get the message that Derek was off limits. Because Derek lost control for a moment and let his cobalt blue eyes shine and two hunters had believed themselves to be some type of avenging angels. Damon had sent both of them packing, the two of them knowing not to make the mistake of messing with Derek again.

"Who else would I be talking about? I know that he's the reason as to why you don't like this place any more. But you'll be nervous to find out that he's been hanging around Klaus and Stefan. And Klaus and Derek..." Gloria paused for a moment after mentioning his son's name which began to make him even more nervous which Ric upon noticing drew closer to Damon. "There's something connecting those two, and it's not just the fact that they're both Original hybrids now." The fact that neither of the men even seemed surprised spoke volumes to their own control over their emotions. What Gloria did not know was that earlier when Stefan and Klaus had been having their little argument back and forth about Rebekah. That Derek had texted Damon about the enormous reveal. Which honestly the two had not been as surprised because of the fact that the Salvatore had roots back to Renaissance and even Viking ages. The fact that Derek was an original because of a spell that a witch placed upon the line was not incredibly shocking to either Derek or to Damon. What concerned Damon more so was the fact that both Klaus and Derek had a connection, and it had to be something important or even earthshattering if Gloria was mentioning it.

"Your brother can be controlled by Klaus, but Derek won't be so easily controlled, and not just because of the fact that he cannot be compelled by the man. Your son has a way of going against the man and bringing out his humanity." Damon seemed to be taking this in and Ric seemed to be awaiting from Damon to start yelling about how his son better not be falling in love with the elder Original hybrid, but no such statement came. "Derek knows how to take care of himself. I'm less worried about his choices with Klaus, and more about Stefan's. My brother has never been very good at making decisions which don't result in some type of self- flagellation. But do you know where the three of them went?" Gloria looked to Damon with a smile and he instantly cursed because now it would be back to the same old vague bullshit that witches always seemed to manage so very well. "Just because you're cute don't think that I'm going to help you. You're still a vampire and now your son is an abomination to nature because of his hybrid status." With this Gloria walked away leaving Damon fuming because of the fact that she had just called his son an abomination.

"Oh, and Damon?" Damon looked to the witch who was standing next to the door which led to the back of the bar.

"I'd keep an eye on your son. He has something which is troubling him. And it's got to be pretty bad for him to be drinking all of that caffeine. He drank enough coffee for five people when he was in this bar earlier. And he wasn't in here very long. He's eventually going to break, and if he's anything like his father, it'll be bad. And he looked like he hasn't slept in a month. Maybe longer." The statement made Damon's brain go from zero to a hundred in less than two seconds.

Damon was more than ninety percent sure that the cause for the increase in his son's caffeine addiction. The increase in caffeine from Derek, who already drank coffee like it was going out of style was due to the two-yearlong disappearance. Damon knew exactly why his son when he had reappeared had not seen him personally, which Derek would have done especially after two years. If nothing had been wrong. Damon knew that his son would tell him eventually after he exploded much like he did, or he would be forced to reveal everything when the load became too much. But the matter was now affecting his son obviously. His son had sounded tense over the phone when he had called offering to help him in any way. Knowing about the werewolves and everything somehow, very suspicious in every way. Damon knew that he should not have left Derek's Camaro in the storage unit in New York. He should have stored it in Mystic Falls so that his son would have been forced to see him. Derek was going to put off meeting for as long as it took his son to perfect a mask so that it would appear as if everything was alright.

Derek could go a long time without sleeping, a trick he had learned from him unfortunately. One which was improved by being a werewolf, and now a hybrid. But when he crashed it would be bad.

Stefan's Apartment

Upon entering the old apartment Derek smelt something which could not be attributed to the scent of old dust. The sound of a beating heart as well was something which was breaking through the dead silence, and upon looking to Klaus he knew that the other hybrid sensed it as well but made no mention of it to Stefan. Derek figured that the source of the heartbeat must be whoever managed to break into Stefan's apartment. The look which Klaus had on his face along with the fact that he made note of people who have possibly broken into the apartment made it very obvious that Klaus knew as well. The thing that unnerved Derek was that he was unsure as to whether his uncle did not hear the heartbeat which would be very unlikely. But with these new senses caused by the transformation into a hybrid, Derek was sometimes unsure as to what could be heard by vampires and even werewolves. The fact that he had not been a hybrid all of his life still made it difficult because even though he had been a werewolf it was difficult to recall exactly what he had been able to hear just a few days ago.

Seeing the look which Klaus shot him as he walked towards the bookshelf made him feel very conflicted. The fact that he should be loyal to his uncle because of the fact that they were both bound by blood. But there was also the fact that Klaus had not lied to him ever since the man had met him. Stefan had lied to him more than a handful of times throughout the years, even when he was a child the man would lie to him if the reason was good enough. The joke was on his uncle though because Damon never thought to tell Stefan that Derek was able to tell if someone was lying to him when he had been a child. Damon had never lied to him though, even when the man had been emotionless at the very beginning.

Both hybrids knew that there was someone behind the case filled with alcohol, but the question was who? The fact that there was somebody behind the shelf was obvious, but how would his uncle play it was what Derek and he could obviously tell Klaus was curious about. When Klaus revealed the fact that he knew about the names written behind the shelf and that Stefan had told him Derek had not been surprised, the fact that the ripper side of his uncle was a terrible human being was not news to him. Damon had informed his son of what his brother was possible of when he had talked to him about the violence of vampires very early on in his life. Derek could tell that Klaus was insulted and even slightly hurt about the fact that Stefan chose not to tell the man about the fact that there was someone hiding behind the bookshelf. And Derek knew exactly what the body language which Stefan was trying to hide from Klaus meant. There was someone behind that shelf that the vampire did not want Klaus seeing, someone who meant enough to the vampire to risk his life lying to the elder Original hybrid. Derek when his uncle was turned away from him talking to Klaus about the bottle of alcohol which he was trying to distract Klaus rolled his eyes. Honestly, Stefan was an idiot if he thought that Klaus would be unable to heart the heartbeat of someone so close. There may be human beings in this building, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that there was somebody nearby with a beating heart, the pumping of the blood was practically screaming that someone was here. Derek nearly missed both his uncle and Klaus leaving the apartment he was so caught up in examining the decision which his uncle was choosing to make.

"Are you coming, or do I need to get your attention using a more drastic measure?" Klaus' voice brought him back to the here and now which was that they were leaving his uncle's creepy serial killer-like apartment. "I don't know, what would these drastic measures involve?" Derek smirked as he flirted with the older hybrid who was walking next to him with his shoulder pressed up against Klaus' shoulder. The hybrid smirked as he looked to the younger Salvatore, the fact that the man went up against him constantly made him unique. The fact that Derek Salvatore was unafraid of him made him very unique, because even when Stefan had wanted to be around him the man had still been careful not to push him too far. This man who had become one of two Original hybrids in all of existence constantly challenged and even opposed him. The man had even gone so far as to make it nearly impossible to obtain werewolves to try and make into hybrids. And yet the wolf side of him had for some reason which always seemed to yearn for blood when someone opposed him seemed to want to do anything to please the other hybrid.

"I was thinking hotel room, a nice bottle of whiskey or bourbon and as little clothing as possible." The last bit was said with another Klaus patented smirk which Derek very easily returned. "I might just be up for that if we can get rid of Stefan." The look on his uncle's face upon hearing even more of the two-hybrid's flirting made everything so much better as the three of them continued on their walk back towards Gloria's bar. "I have a question for you love." Derek looked to Klaus giving him the go ahead for the man to ask whatever question which he obviously wanted to ask the younger Original hybrid. "How are you, Stefan, and Damon related?" Derek felt his brain screaming for the opportunity to not have to answer the question and Derek tried to think of how he could best answer this question. "How about we wait until we get that hotel room? I might be more willing to answer more questions once you start bribing me with that bourbon." Klaus paused for a moment in their walk back to Gloria's bar. Stefan seemed not to notice as both hybrids stopped in their walk. Klaus nodded without saying a word to Derek, but Klaus seemed almost disappointed that Derek was unwilling at the current moment to share how exactly he was related to the Salvatore brothers. What confused Derek was as to why his wolf cared so much about how distressed Klaus' own wolf seemed. That the other wolf seemed distressed that Derek was unwilling to share with Klaus.

"Klaus. I'm not trying to hide anything from you, it's just that it's not an explanation which I would like to explain out on the street where just anyone can hear. And if I am going to explain how I am exactly related to the Salvatore brothers I would like to not have to stop in the middle of the story." Klaus seemed to instantly perk up after hearing this explanation and Derek could feel both Klaus' wolf and his own wolf instantly reaching out for each other once again. The confusing thing which Derek could never explain was as to why his own wolf seemed to constantly be reaching out for Klaus. Whenever he was in the other hybrid's company he felt safe, at home, secure. Something which he had not felt since being with Damon. The only bad thing about this was that with everything else which was going on his head, the fact that his wolf was making matters more confusing by messing with his feelings was not helping. The fact that he had not slept properly in a month was not helping either.

When Klaus pulled Derek out of the way from nearly stepping out into the street on their way back to Gloria's Derek thanked Klaus, ignoring the questioning look which he received. Blaming the misstep on distraction before following both Klaus and Stefan into the bar, waiting for the arrival of the long-awaited Rebekah Mikaelson.

Outside Stefan's apartment

As Damon and Klaus were nearing Stefan's apartment building Ric stopped Damon in front of the building. "Damon. Derek will be fine once we get him home." Damon said nothing for a good two minutes before looking to Alaric with concern all over his face. The concern surprised the hunter, who knew that Damon had to be extremely worried for it to be shown on his face.

"My son was missing for two years, and then upon reappearing he did not meet me face to face." Damon looked down to the ground upon saying this. "Derek would have come to see me. Derek did not want to be wherever he was. And he knew that I would be able to see if something was wrong." A sigh escaped the vampires mouth as he ran his hand across his face.

"Derek is in bad shape. And I know he's going to end up breaking. I don't know from what, and I don't know who is the cause of it. But he's trying not to sleep which a sign that it's very bad." Alaric approached the vampire slowly, placing a hand on Damon's cheek, getting Damon's complete attention immediately.

"We will find Derek. And we will figure everything out." Damon nodded placing his hand on the hunters before the two of them headed towards the door which would lead to Stefan's old apartment.

Stefan's Apartment

Elena as soon as she heard the door tensed up, waiting for the person to enter the apartment once again. Hoping that this time it would be Damon and Alaric rather than Klaus. Upon peeking around the corner and noticing Alaric walking through the door with Damon following close behind him with her bag which she had left in the Camaro she thanked every deity which she could think of in happiness.

"Finally! I called you an hour ago about Stefan and Klaus being here!" Damon seemed to ignore her while Alaric acknowledged the fact that she could have had her throat ripped out a second time by Klaus Mikaelson. Then it almost seemed as if Damon realized that there was something else important other than the fact that it had been Klaus Mikaelson who had nearly discovered her as he jerked his head around to look at her. "Did you hear anyone else other than Klaus and Stefan? A third voice? Male?" Elena shook her head, finally relieved to have the attention from Damon in regard to how she had nearly been discovered by Klaus.

"Alright then, you need to make yourself presentable then. Because both Alaric and myself know exactly where Klaus and Stefan along with Derek are going to be tonight." The anger on Elena's face only served to make Damon care less about the fact that she was focusing on the fact that she had nearly been discovered by Klaus. The fact was that both Klaus and Derek if his son had been in the room probably knew that there had been someone else in this room. The beating of her own heart would have given it away.

"I had an hour to realize how stupid it was to have left you here all by yourself, and then move on. You're alright so there's no damage done. We need to find Stefan and focus on the plan here." Elena looked to Damon, obviously still annoyed about the fact that both Damon and Alaric were focusing more on the plan than the fact that she had nearly been discovered. But Elena was listening as Damon explained what exactly she was going to have to do.

"You're going to have maybe five minutes to deal with Stefan with Alaric on Derek while I try and distract Klaus. That the three of us are trying to mess with his entire group. You need to do your job because more than likely Klaus is going to rip out my heart for it, so you had better get through to Stefan." Elena nodded and when Damon asked her again once more if she would be able to do this she told the vampire once again that she could get through to Stefan. "I really hope so because if you can't then this will all have been for nothing and I may die before ever getting to see my son again." The nervous look on Elena's face only served to make Damon feel even more uneasy about the plan. Which had so many flaws that it made himself very nervous, but he nodded allowing Elena to believe that he was as confident as he seemed.

Gloria's Bar

"Before I ask you where Rebekah is what have you done with Derek?" The tone from Gloria let the two immortal beings know that if anything had been done to the youngest Salvatore that she would have something to say about it. Klaus laughed lightly before telling the witch that Derek had taken a coffee break and was getting coffee at the Starbucks across the street.

"You need to make that man cut back on the caffeine, it's not doing him any good."

Klaus merely nodded in response not really listening to the witch but rather trying to listen out for the sound of Derek across the street. He trusted the other hybrid to return without a doubt. But the fact that every minute since he had met the other man he had wanted nothing more than to remain close and to consume Derek had been unusual to say the least. Derek constantly went against Klaus and even opposed him in many things. He had never met anyone who could constantly both infuriate and interest him in such a way that Derek Salvatore managed to do. Klaus had ripped out many a person's heart for almost everything which Derek did to him, but there was something very different about Derek. His wolf wanted to keep Derek close at all times and felt as if a piece of him was breaking every time that Derek was not around. It was driving the older hybrid insane. In the presence of Derek everything just felt better, the anger and paranoia which he would often feel would disappear completely, to be replaced by a calm which had not been felt in years. There was something different about the man and he was going to find out exactly what was at play here.

"After this we're all going to see if we can get some rest. Take a day off so that Derek can catch up on all of that lost sleep. And Rebekah is on her way, she's just being dramatic and taking her time." The look which Gloria sent Klaus' way upon hearing about the rest they were all going to take after this confused him. He had no idea what that look meant, but it did not make him feel good in any way as she walked away from Stefan and himself. He nearly groaned aloud upon noticing the look which he was receiving from Stefan who had been much more fun back during the twenties. Klaus would very much enjoy being alone with the younger Salvatore, and not just for the very obvious reason. "Whatever you're going to say go ahead and say it so that I can get back to my drinking. You obviously have something which you want to get off your chest."

"What are your intentions towards Derek?" Klaus had expected the question but had not expected the emotion hidden behind the question. Just how closely related were the two Salvatore's he wondered to himself as he thought how to best answer the vampire Salvatore. "Nothing as dastardly as you think. I rather enjoy the presence of your younger relative. Who is related to you how exactly?" Stefan smirked upon hearing the question which came from the Original hybrid. "Nice try but you're going to have to get that answer from Derek. But you have spent the entire summer having me assist you in murdering people and even werewolves, but Derek is the only one which you felt bad for the death of. Why is that?" Klaus looked to Stefan with a sidelong glance. Klaus originally had not been sure as to why he had felt remorse for the death of Derek, the man had been nothing but a thorn in his side since the very beginning. Upon seeing the man his wolf had yearned to be near the other man. Klaus had not felt such a desire for another person in all of his thousand years as an immortal being.

"I really have no idea. Your relative constantly goes against me in ways which have cost lesser men their hearts. I have no idea as to why my wolf enjoys the presence of Derek so much." The answer seemed to shock Stefan, who saw the elder Original hybrid as a heartless monster. The appearance of emotions in the hybrid concerned the vampire, what would his brother do when he found out that Klaus had a sort of fondness for his own son?

Starbucks across the street

Derek felt as if someone was watching him, a feeling which refused to go away even as he was being handed the largest container of coffee with enough caffeine to send an ordinary human into shock. The place where he had been had made it so that he was paranoid a good amount of the time because of the constant people who he watched him, but he knew that this was not an unfounded feeling. Choosing his next action carefully he looked for any reflective surface so that he could possibly look at his surroundings without revealing the fact that he knew that someone was watching him. Noticing a man with brown hair with an athletic build he took a closer look and realized exactly who the man was. Alaric. The man perfectly matched the picture which his father had sent him months ago when he had been curious as to what his father's friend looked like. Derek's heart stopped.

His father was going to try and take Stefan and him away from Klaus by force. Derek nearly ran out of the Starbucks, but Alaric had placed himself so that it would be impossible to leave without having to face the man. Derek felt as if he was cornered, a feeling which he had not had for months, a feeling which he had not missed in the slightest. Deciding to take the least violent approach in regard to the situation seemed to be the best move so he approached Alaric with no sort of aggressive nature in his gait, sitting down at the table which the other man had chosen to take for himself.

"You noticed that I was here. Not many people would have." Derek scoffed at the obvious statement, but then realized that the man was trying to offer up a compliment. "Not many people have the survival instincts of a Salvatore. But you would know this very well, wouldn't you Alaric?" Any surprise at having been called by name was hidden very well or Alaric knew that Derek would know his name and his appearance before this moment in time. "Please call me Ric, your father does." Derek smirked upon hearing a mention of his father, but the smirk was wiped off his face upon hearing the next statement. "The fact that you keep consuming coffee like it's going out of style lets me know that you're running away from something which I doubt that you want to talk about." Derek's eyes narrowed upon hearing the mention of his caffeine intake. "My father will tell you that I have always consumed enough caffeine and alcohol to kill an ordinary human being. It's not a very unusual factor in my life." Ric's eyes narrowed as Derek was able to twist the question back in his direction.

"Look. I'm not going to interrogate you. It's none of my business as to why you suddenly disappeared for two years. Giving your father no sign as to where you had gone." Derek resisted the urge to squirm in his seat as he heard about the concern which his father would have obviously felt during his disappearance. "My father is going to get himself killed trying to go against Klaus. I am completely safe. Klaus has done nothing harmful to me this entire time, he has never forced me to kill anyone, actually he encouraged control rather than no control." The look on Alaric's face made Derek wish that he currently had a camera. Anything else that Alaric said to Derek was ignored as he heard a noise which made everything else meaningless, his father's pain.

Outside Gloria's

As soon as Stefan had left Gloria's he looked around for the telltale sign of his brother and after he had shoved his older brother up against a car. "What do you think you're doing here! The fact that Klaus doesn't know that Elena is alive is something which I would rather keep to ourselves, how about you?"

"Where is Derek? Is he alright?" The fact that Stefan was not the least bit nervous as the elder Salvatore asked about Derek made Damon feel less nervous than he had originally been. Stefan had always been horrible in hiding his emotions so the lack of nervous energy in play made Damon much less nervous. "Derek is fine, he's just across the street getting another coffee." Damon's eyes narrowed upon hearing the fact that Derek was buying even more coffee to keep himself from falling asleep. "You need to get Derek to stop drinking all of that caffeine, whatever happened to him is bad enough that he's trying to stay awake. But the caffeine is going to make it even worse." Stefan gave Damon an incredulous look upon hearing that he should try and get between Derek and the caffeine which he so dearly enjoyed. "Do you remember the last time that one of us got in between Derek and his caffeine? I almost lost my hand when he nearly ripped it off. At fifteen years old." Damon smiled fondly and then winced at the memory, he remembered it very well, there had been a very good talk as to what a person was and was not allowed to do to obtain coffee. Of course, he had never learned that lesson very well, but yeah it was going to be dangerous to lessen the level of caffeine which his son was obviously ingesting to keep awake.

"You should be more concerned with the fact that Derek and Klaus are flirting with each other constantly and that Klaus is fond of Derek. Enough that the man actually felt bad for Derek's death when the human killed Derek." Damon rolled his eyes. Derek was extremely lucky that Stefan had not been born the older Salvatore brother, because Stefan could be incredibly uptight about certain things. The fact that they were against Klaus was not going to make Damon interfere with anything regarding Derek and Klaus, he wasn't insane. "Derek is a grown man he can make his own decisions, besides if you try and force Derek to do anything he does not want to do it ends badly for everybody around. You would know that if you had been around Derek more as he grew up." The dig was a low blow, but it had the intended effect of getting Stefan to change the subject.

"You need to get Elena away from here Damon, she is the key to everything which Klaus is trying to accomplish. Derek is the only successful hybrid which had been created. A success which is due more to the fact of his bloodline than anything else. He can't create other hybrids and when his affection for Derek ceases to distract him then he's going to remember how angry that makes him. Tell Elena to go home and forget about me." Damon rolled his eyes upon hearing the explanation which Stefan was giving him. "You're going to have to tell her yourself because she's right here." And while Stefan was distracted Damon snuck into Gloria's so that he would be able to distract Klaus from the plan which they had constructed.

Gloria's

Klaus smirked upon seeing the oldest Salvatore sitting down next to him at the bar, then chose to make a comment about how they were allowing the scum into the bar now. "You don't give up do you?" Klaus had now focused on Damon completely knowing that Derek would be fine for the minute it would take him to deal with the eldest Salvatore. "It's a Salvatore trait, one which Derek did not miss out on in the slightest." The smirk which Damon had on his face as he talked about Derek made Klaus pause for a moment. The affection which was being displayed was not the same level which Stefan often displayed which made Klaus think for a moment. "The fact that I have not ripped out Derek's heart is a miracle in and of itself really, but I find the youngest Salvatore interesting to say the least." Damon hid his concern behind a smirk, the fact that Klaus found his son interesting made him nervous. The bravado which he had given Stefan earlier had not been a lie, but it made him nervous that Klaus could be trying to use Derek against them. The fact that Klaus found his son was a good thing he supposed, because that meant that Derek would be less likely to get on Klaus' bad side if he was interesting to the older hybrid.

"The control which he has is incredible. So far Derek has not killed any man or woman from feeding, even the very first one which was nearly drained dry from the other failures." The relief which Damon felt was incredible upon realizing that Klaus was not trying to make Derek in to another ripper like Stefan. "But why exactly are you here and why exactly am I not ripping you to shreds right now? I mean Stefan negotiated your protection but how many chances do you really get? I mean if you're here you obviously want to die." Damon felt nervous as the hybrid began to talk, he needed to give both Alaric and Elena time, so he was probably going to have to let Klaus toss him around a bit.

"Give me both Stefan and Derek and I'll be out of your hair." The smile which Damon sent Klaus' way was instantly wiped off his face upon hearing the growl which seemed to come from deep inside Klaus at the mention of taking Derek away. The unrelenting grip which Klaus suddenly had on his throat got Klaus' answer very clearly across as to what he thought of Damon's idea. Damon felt his bones breaking as the hybrid picked him up and eventually threw him across the room, breaking tables as he slid across the floor. When Klaus ripped the leg off a table and began to approach Damon with the intent to run him through Damon tried to get up because the last thing that he wanted was to die before getting to see his son again, he refused to die. Klaus planted his foot on his chest, and just before he was about to shove a stake through his heart a loud roar resounded throughout Gloria's bar.

A large black wolf threw itself in between Damon and Klaus, snapping at the Original hybrid who had tried to harm the vampire. Growling and baring his massive teeth at the man who had nearly killed Damon, and Damon felt everything stop around him. Derek was alright. Derek was, well the wolf form of his son was right before him growling at the hybrid who had tried to attack Damon who was still laying on the floor because of how Derek's position made it impossible to get up. Damon remained silent as he watched the interaction between the two hybrids, and it was interesting to say the least. From what Damon had heard Klaus never hesitated to destroy or even get rid of anyone or anything which got in the way of who he was trying to kill, which made Damon instantly nervous. Derek had placed himself right in front of the person who Klaus had wanted to destroy only a moment ago. Derek had finally calmed down and was now laying down next to his father who had placed a hand on Derek's back, the fur soft and smooth underneath his hand.

Klaus was looking at the wolf with something which could only be described as being awe. Going after Damon Salvatore was put on the backburner the moment that Klaus had seen the wolf form which he knew to be Derek. The wolf form of Derek Salvatore was something which Klaus could only describe as being beautiful. Derek as a wolf was enormous, Derek's back would easily come up to Klaus' waist, the wolf's enormous size and jet-black fur would probably be intimidating if not for the fact that Klaus found the man even more alluring as he protected the oldest Salvatore who still lay on the floor because of the fact that Damon was unable to get up due to the wolf's position. As Derek chose to protect the man who he had been about to kill only moments before. The presence of Derek's wolf made Klaus want to turn into his own wolf form, Klaus' wolf was practically screaming for him to let the wolf out so that the snow-white fur of Klaus' own wolf could contrast so starkly against the jet-black fur of Derek's own.

Derek then rose up off of the floor and gave a sideways glance to his father who took this as a sign to get out of the bar before Klaus decided to change his mind and kill the elder Salvatore. Damon vamped out of the bar, but Klaus did not seem to notice in the slightest as he kneeled down so that he could look Derek in the face. Raising his hand so that Derek could see what he was about to do Klaus placed his hand on the side of Derek's neck, running it through the surprisingly soft fur of Derek's wolf form. The smirk which revealed itself on Klaus' face made Derek feel slightly concerned because of the fact that it could be about his father who had just left Gloria's bar.

"So, am I wrong in guessing that your father is Damon Salvatore?" Derek couldn't prevent himself from tensing up at hearing how the older hybrid had figured out that his father was Damon. "I really should not be surprised. I mean there are so many things which you have in common with the elder Salvatore that I am actually somewhat ashamed that I did not figure it out earlier." Derek made a noise which was the wolf equivalent of a laugh which made Klaus smile upon hearing the noise. Then Klaus smiled even wider and Derek angled his head to the side in confusion as to why Klaus was laughing so much. "Did you strip yourself of your clothes before you transformed into your wolf form? Or did you transform without thinking because you heard the sound of your father in pain?" Derek lowered himself to the ground, laying his head on the ground in obvious embarrassment, looking to the side, not meeting the gaze of the hybrid. The fact that Derek sometimes still forgot to remove at least his jeans before a transformation even after all of these years when in a rush. "I mean, I would not mind in the least at seeing you with nothing on. But I am not going to lie that I would be jealous that everyone else would be able to see that as well." Derek's ears perked up at what the hybrid had said, loving the attention which the man was giving him. "You have your keys at least right? We would be able to go and get you at least a pair of jeans out of your trunk if you had your keys." Derek made a short bark in response obviously trying to tell the hybrid that he had left his leather jacket at least in a safe enough place so that he would not have to worry about his keys. Just before Derek was about to rise back up, so that the two of them could go and get his leather jacket and the keys to his Camaro from the person in the coffee shop he had compelled something Klaus said stopped him.

"You're wolf form is breathtaking by the way. I only gained the ability to transform into a wolf recently because I was under the curse my mother placed upon me. I have not seen many wolf forms but yours is the most breathtaking that I have ever seen." Derek knew that if he had been in his human form he would have been unable to hide the blush which would have been across his face. The fact that he had yet to see Klaus' wolf form though was now going to bother him, he wanted to see the other hybrid's wolf form. The thought continued to run through his mind as the two of them made their way back towards the Starbucks to get his leather jacket and keys. The fact that it was Klaus' own mother which had placed the hybrid curse upon her own son though made Derek want to do a double take. Derek thought his mother had made horrible choices, but Klaus' mother seemed to be on the same level as his own mother.

Outside Gloria's Bar

Alaric stood outside the car as he waited for Damon while Elena sat inside of the car. The fact that the teenager had not said a word upon reuniting with the hunter made it very evident that the conversation which had taken place with Stefan earlier had not gone well in the slightest. As Damon approached the vehicle Alaric felt as if a weight had been lifted from his heart, he was overjoyed that the vampire was alright. The fact that he did not seem to be angry or outwardly worried made him less stressed about the fact that Damon might make a self-destructive choice to rescue his son Derek. Alaric had realized that the concern which Damon had about Derek's mental health had been correct though. The fact that Derek was consuming so much coffee was an obvious tactic to stay awake. Alaric knew that one of the reasons Derek would be trying to stay awake was more than likely because of nightmares. Alaric knew this tactic very well. He had used the tactic himself very often when he chose to not use alcohol to drink himself into oblivion when the ghosts from his own past got to be too much. Damon had perfected this art as well and he figured that Derek would have learned the technique from his father very easily. The bad thing would be that Damon would want to know what he thought upon seeing him, and he did not have it in him to lie about the fact that his concerns were well-founded in regard to Derek.

"So, did you get to see Derek?" Alaric's question seemed to bring Damon away from whatever train of thought he had been involved with. Damon nodded with a smile upon hearing the mention of his son, but it turned quickly into a frown. "Derek was in his wolf form, and he seemed to be alright. The fact that he nearly took a bite out of Klaus was amazing as well." Alaric's eyes nearly doubled in size upon hearing the fact that Damon's son had gone up against Klaus, Original now or not and had not gotten his neck snapped. "Gloria was right though. Klaus and Derek have some kind of connection, when the hybrid saw Derek's wolf form it seemed as if Derek was the only thing that Klaus was able to see in that bar. I was totally in the background." Alaric took this information in as he watched Damon for any signs that the vampire was going to do anything self-destructive. "What did you think of him when you saw him earlier?" Alaric paused for a moment before looking to Elena who was sitting in the car, obviously not having heard anything Damon or Alaric had said. Being focused on how Stefan had obviously rejected her. "Let's wait until we get back to Mystic Falls and can discuss this away from other ears." The statement did what Alaric had been worried about and seemed to worry Damon even more, but the vampire immediately covered it up behind a mask. Not saying a word but choosing to simply nod in response Damon climbed into the car and sat in the passenger seat waiting for Alaric. As the three of them drove back towards the airport Damon looked back over his shoulder thinking of his son and what could possibly be affecting him this bad. Knowing that every bit of it had to do with the two years which Derek went missing, and that it was going to be hell on Derek.

Warehouse in Chicago

"Yes, but how does one simply forget the fact that when he transforms his clothes are going to be totally and completely destroyed." Derek glared at the other hybrid with no heat at all behind the gaze. "I did not forget which is evident because of the fact that I left my leather jacket behind with someone that I compelled. The fact that my clothes mattered less than my own father's welfare was something of more importance." Then Derek paused to look at the amused look which was all over Klaus' face. "My clothes seemed of little importance up until the point which I had saved my father. Then I realized that I would have nothing to wear. But as a werewolf clothing is a very trivial thing." Klaus raised an eyebrow upon hearing this from Derek, who smirked in return and this would have gone on further except for the fact that Stefan decided to interfere once again. Coughing and breaking the gaze which, the two men had been giving one another.

"I swear Stefan, you're no fun. It's not like I haven't had sex before." The look which Derek received from Stefan made Derek smirk because of the discomfort which he had managed to create for his uncle. Derek did not see the look which Klaus had on his face though. The fact that Derek had been involved with other people made him jealous for some reason, which was odd because of the fact that out of all of the lovers which he had had throughout the years that feeling of jealousy had never shown itself. So why was it making itself known now? And with this person?

As they walked over to the coffin which had contained the body of Klaus' sister Rebekah earlier Derek was not surprised to see that the coffin lay empty. Extending his senses to the entire warehouse he noticed a scent which had been inside of the coffin earlier. Derek moved slightly to the side, and out from in front of Klaus where he had been located just seconds before Klaus was stabbed by his sister.

"Go to hell Nik!" Rebekah looked over to Derek who was looking at the strikingly beautiful blonde woman who was wearing what she had last worn before she had been daggered. "You heard me." Derek merely nodded in response to what had been said to him, letting the female Original evaluate him rather than letting anything that he would say affect her opinion of him. Derek watched on with a raised eyebrow as Klaus pulled out the dagger which Rebekah had shoved into his chest, silently laughing at the interaction between the two Originals. "Maybe I could just kill your little friend here, I bet that would hurt you." The expression on Klaus' face went from slightly amused at his sister's actions to one which clearly expressed how readily he would murder anyone who tried to kill Derek. Klaus covered this up though with a smirk, not wanting to let his sister know how easily she had gotten to him.

"That would be a little difficult seeing as Derek is an Original hybrid as well little sister." The expression on Rebekah's face was priceless upon hearing that there was another Original hybrid in the world now. "What are you talking about?! How is he an Original hybrid?" While Klaus gave Rebekah the explanation which Gloria had given him Derek stretched out his senses to his uncle who was still standing outside the warehouse because Klaus had told him to wait there. Derek while these two were arguing was wondering as to where exactly his uncle had been while Klaus, Damon and himself had been inside of Gloria's bar. The three of them had been making enough noise that Stefan would have come running had he been close enough to hear. So there was the thought that either Stefan had been focused on something which meant a great deal to his uncle, or that he had been far enough away not to hear them. More than likely it was the former, Derek knew that Stefan was waiting for an opportunity to get free from the hybrid.

Derek was so focused on this that he missed the look which Rebekah gave him as she evaluated Derek, the female Original obviously wondering as to how Derek had managed to win her brother over. Not that the female vampire didn't think that Derek wasn't attractive, but Klaus was by nature paranoid and suspicious. The fact that there seemed to be none of that with this man made her very curious.

Klaus noticed that his sister was evaluating Derek and quickly tried to give her something else to focus on. Mainly Stefan, who he told her was a kind of peace offering for daggering her and placing her inside of a box since the twenties. Derek watched on in amazement upon seeing Klaus remove the compulsion which had been in place since the twenties. The confliction which Derek saw on Stefan's face upon getting all of his memories back made him nervous. It was well known how self-destructive some of his uncle's choices could be, and he was concerned that because of all of this new information he would make some idiotic choice. But luckily there seemed to be no possibility of that as of this moment.

When Rebekah and Klaus began to argue about some necklace which was obviously of great importance Derek looked on in suspicion at his uncle. Stefan obviously knew something which he was not revealing, and Derek knew that it would be something which was going to be detrimental to his own welfare. Derek knew that look on his uncle's face, it was the common look when Stefan was hiding something. The yelling of Klaus and Rebekah finally stopped which made both Stefan and Derek look to the other Originals, knowing that they must have finally reached some kind of agreement.

"It's much too late for this. We're going to continue this tomorrow when we have all managed to get some rest. We'll go shopping so that Rebekah will be able to not stand out, and then meet with Gloria." Derek had not even heard the second half of the sentence upon hearing that the group of them was going to be going to a hotel, that they would be expected to try and get some sleep. Derek was going to avoid sleep as long as possible, and a comfortable five-star hotel bed would not be helpful in preventing sleep. Klaus seemed to notice the stiff posture which Derek had upon hearing the mention of a hotel but did not let on that he had noticed as the group of them head toward the hotel which he had picked out earlier during the day. Whatever horrible thing which Derek was trying to avoid by not sleeping was going to catch up to the younger hybrid, and Klaus planned to be there when it did. Because he knew that when it would eventually hit Derek that the other man was going to possibly crash and burn.

Mystic Falls

"You were right, he was there."

"I'm always right. Any knowledge though on the new hybrid who I hear is hanging around Klaus?" Damon's grip tightened on his phone. He was going to try and keep Katherine from finding out who Derek was for as long as possible. When he had been trying to get her out of the tomb it had been in an effort to find his son because of the resources she would have. When Katherine had not been in the tomb he had searched for Derek and tried to keep the fact that Derek was his son away from Katherine when she had shown back up in Mystic Falls.

"None at all."

"If that's your story Damon but let me guess. It ended in heartbreak and tears?" Damon couldn't help but to laugh at the obvious disregard which Katherine felt for Elena. Before he had figured out about his feelings for Alaric which he was still trying to figure out how to act upon he would have been annoyed at the disregard for Elena's feelings but now it just made him laugh.

"Why don't you just go enjoy yourself while you're in Europe Katherine? That would be my own guess as to where you are currently, you always enjoyed those lazy afternoons." Damon could practically feel the smirk coming from Katherine before she hung up. Damon stood there for a moment after she had hung up wondering as to how everything had ended up happening this way. First his son had gone missing which had stretched to a period of two years before he had contacted his father. Then upon seeing Derek for the first time in two years it had been in Derek's wolf form when he had protected his father now as an Original hybrid. And now Damon was back in Mystic Falls wondering if he was ever going to be able to actually sit down with his son again who was more than likely about to crash and burn because of whatever bad things he had experienced over the last two years. The worst part about the crash and burn would be that more than likely because of how Klaus and Derek would not be anywhere near Damon when his son eventually crashed. He would be unable to do anything about it.

Looking over to the alcohol in the corner of the room Damon began to make his way over towards it, but then paused. Damon turned around and made his way towards his bedroom. For once he didn't feel like drinking, the alcohol would only remind him of the fact that his son was nowhere near him. And the sooner that the elder Salvatore was able to go to sleep, the sooner that he would be able to create a plan which would hopefully help his brother and Derek.


	4. Devotion

As the four of them entered the hotel Derek felt the nervousness which had been steadily increasing as they had grown closer and closer to the hotel reach a new level. It had been awful when he had gotten into his car and had been forced to follow Klaus and the other two vampires to the hotel. But upon reaching the hotel and being forced to grab the clothes which were located in the back of his car so that they would each be able to go to their own respective rooms he had realized the gravity of the situation.

Derek was so focused upon the fact that he was more than likely going to end up collapsing from the lack of caffeine which he had been unable to obtain since before he had saved his father that he didn't notice Rebekah approach him. "Is it nightmares?" Derek quickly looked to her, and she repeated the question because he had failed to hear it the first time. "I know the look of a person who is doing everything they can to remain awake, so that they can avoid the things which their mind will make up." Derek looked to Rebekah who had an expression which Derek thought out of place on such a powerful vampire, loss and vulnerability.

"It's not the things that my mind could make up. It's the things which my mind would make me remember. The memories." Rebekah said nothing in response but merely nodded in response to what Derek had said as Stefan and Klaus approached them. "You need to know that avoiding sleep tends to make it worse eventually. It gives the memories more power in reality." Derek looked to her as she said this. He knew that this was true, but the fact was that the last thing which he wanted to do was sleep and see everything which had happened to him in the last two years relived. The lack of proper sleep in the last month made it so that he knew that when he eventually crashed and succumbed to that deep sleep which he had so far been able to avoid. That it was going to be horrible, something which was going to make things even worse.  
"I got the penthouse suite so that we each would have our own rooms, but so that we would be able to remain somewhat close to each other." Everyone nodded barely listening to Klaus because of the exhaustion which was felt all around except from Rebekah. Derek was even more nervous upon hearing that they would be sharing a suite, now it was going to be nearly impossible to stay awake without making everyone else in the suite even more aware as to how bad his lack of sleep was getting.

Upon looking to Klaus, he was surprised to see that the other hybrid was already looking at him. Derek sent a smirk so as to try and make the other man think that nothing was wrong but both men knew that Derek was not in the least bit convincing as they headed to the elevator. Then Derek saw the coffee shop not even ten feet away from himself and bolted out of the elevator, leaving the other three people in the elevator shocked. Or at least he figured that they would be, he had not been able to see their faces before he bolted out of the elevator. There was no issue with going and getting that last bit of coffee before he would be forced to go without for the rest of the night. Honestly Derek wished that these nightmares would go away so that he could stop consuming the insane amount of caffeine which he had been consuming ever since he had begun hunting down werewolf packs. Derek loved coffee, but even this was getting to be too much for him. There was no need to worry about the money aspect of it, but the fact that he was constantly having to consume an insane amount of coffee to keep awake was starting to get on his nerves. The fact that his father would do something to deal with the amount of caffeine he had been consuming lately was not even a question should the four of them get back to Mystic Falls. All Derek knew though was that if anyone tried to take his coffee out of his hand that he would remove that person's hand from their body.

Derek could not keep from groaning audibly upon reaching the coffee shop. It. Was. Closed. What. The. Ever. Loving. Bloody. Fucking. Hell.

"Every single force is against me."

"Not every single force, love." Derek took a moment to gather his thoughts, then looked down at his watch and realized exactly why he had rushed towards the café without looking. It was only fucking nine o'clock at night, there would have been no way that it should have been closed. Unless… Motherfucker.

"You cut off my supply." The look which Derek sent Klaus' way was nothing short of murderous at having had the easier to acquire supply cut off. The fact that Klaus was not in the least bit cowed from his expression clearly showed how much he thought that he was helping Derek, the only reason Klaus would have done this would be that he was probably trying to help. But Derek needed caffeine, he did not want to sleep, he would even spend a day in that hellhole which he had managed to escape from rather than sleep and be reminded what had happened to him.

"I can easily just get coffee from the nearest Starbucks." Derek said with a smirk as he looked to the hybrid who was still smirking, and it made Derek very uneasy as to why he was still so confidant. "I compelled every coffee shop for the next twenty miles to close early tonight." Derek felt every bit of confidence leave his body as he realized exactly what the man had just said to him. "You're being cut off." The confidence which had just recently left his body returned with a fierce anger. No matter how much his wolf seemed to like this man, along with himself there was no way that he was going to allow him to think he could control him.

"You have no right to cut me off. It's my own choice to drink coffee, and the fact of the matter is that if I have to drive twenty miles to get coffee I will." Derek with his bag in tow began his walk towards the door, about to do the exact thing which he told Klaus that he was going to do, his wolf whining the entire time. Wanting to return to the other hybrid. "Could you use the company?" The form of the other hybrid which was suddenly walking right next to him only served to piss him off, but he knew that there was nothing which he could do to change the older hybrid's mind. "Whatever you want, just don't touch the music, you do, and we'll test the extent of your supernatural healing." Klaus merely shrugged in response to what had been said. Derek did not understand though, Klaus obviously liked him, but the only person who was able to get between him and his coffee without nearly losing an arm was Damon. Why did Klaus care so much though? There were not that many people other than Damon and to an extent Stefan who cared enough to do something about his caffeine intake. In his father's defense the other man was not here, and the rate at which he normally had coffee was not whatever number that he had been drinking lately. Usually it was only about three or four cups of coffee at the most, five if it had been a really horrible day.

As the two of them were driving Derek feeling the lack of caffeine beginning to take its toll on him around the tenth mile, he realized that Klaus had asked him a question. The lack of attention which he had been paying the hybrid made it so that he had no idea in the slightest as to what the other man had even said. "Whatever is going on with you must be pretty bloody awful for you to be consuming the amount of caffeine which you are drinking." Derek rolled his eyes, and then yawned, maybe this actually had been a mistake. Then Derek realized immediately what Klaus had done in compelling all of the coffee places for the next twenty miles to close down early for the night. First the man had gotten Derek to use what energy he had left to drive towards the nearest open coffee house, which Derek knew now had been a huge mistake because of the fact that he could barely keep his eyes open. The second factor being that Derek could see the older hybrid continually checking on him from out of the corner of his eye, causing Derek to frown. At the questioning look from the hybrid he glared at the road, the lack of energy making it hard to decide the best way in dealing with a hybrid who was becoming somewhat concerned over his own caffeine intake.

"I know exactly what you are doing." The look which Derek received from Klaus which was a 'what me?' look only served to make Derek's temper even shorter. "You were trying to make me even more exhausted than I already am in the hope that I would fall asleep." The shrug from Klaus both pissed off Derek and even made him calm down slightly. Because on the one hand it was endearing how the other hybrid cared for him, but on the other hand it was bloody annoying because of the fact that Klaus was using it on him. "You didn't think of one thing though." At the questioning look which Derek received from Klaus, he responded by telling the other man that he had not thought about the idea that they would have to end up driving back to the hotel, which Klaus only responded in kind with a smile.

"Love. If you think that I can't buy out every single nice hotel in Chicago, then you are incredibly misinformed. The fact that you are about to crash your beautiful car because of your lack of sleep is incredibly concerning. If you would like to think of it this way, think of it as I am protecting myself. The fact that you have little to no energy because of your lack of caffeine is a threat to my survival." Derek pulled over to the side of the road, having finally hit his limit. Klaus who had been smiling earlier was now frowning as soon as Derek had pulled over. Derek looked over to Klaus and with an exhausted sigh he told Klaus to come and switch seats with him. Klaus without even saying a word switched seats with the younger hybrid, who upon taking a seat in the passenger's side seat instantly fell asleep before the back of his head had even touched the headrest. Klaus smiled slightly though, because he was pretty sure that before the other man fell asleep he heard the younger man tell him that if he got so much as a scratch on his Camaro, that he would find a way to kill the man.

With a concerned look on his face Klaus, rather than driving back towards the hotel which he had booked for himself and the rest of his company drove towards the nearest hotel. The fact that the other man had been avoiding sleep for so long meant nightmares, and he doubted that Derek would want to have his uncle around if he started having nightmares. Pulling into the parking lot of the nearest hotel, he looked to the youngest Salvatore, hoping that he would be able to get the younger into the hotel without having to wake him up. Unaware in the slightest that the thing which the younger hybrid had been dreading was already going on inside of his head.

Two Years Ago  
May 2008

Derek screamed as the electricity ran through his body thanks to the electric collar which had been gifted to him by the lovely people who had picked him up outside of his apartment building. The men had picked him up not even a couple of hours after he had seen Laura Hale, who had yet again been trying to convince him to join a pack with her once again. Derek knew that the only reason she wanted him in her pack was because of the fact that almost the entire Hale family, with exception to Peter, who was in Mystic Falls, was dead.

Another charge ran through the collar just as Derek tried to take a breath so that he would be able to prepare himself for the next shock. The shock along with the constant smell of wolfsbane in the back of the enormous truck made it painfully obvious that these people were experts at this game. The apparent factor, though, was that the experts were not the people who were transporting him, because they were constantly doing and saying things, which let him know how they were amateurs at the game. For example, when one of them had mentioned his desire to put a silver bullet into his leg for an extra amount of pain. Derek had nearly lost it right then and there, because his breed of werewolf had no fear of silver.  
A roar escaped his throat as he felt the man in control of the collar up the voltage and Derek could feel the collar begin to leave burn marks. Burn marks, which because of the wolfsbane, were not healing at their own accelerated rate. Derek knew that he had to have been knocked out for a good while because he heard none of the noises or even the familiar scents of New York. The scent, which although muddled by the wolfsbane, held nothing of New York which was loud noise which as a werewolf you had to get used to. The bright side of living in Brooklyn, or even in living in New York, was that because of all of the people, werewolves and vampires tended to get lost in the populous. Apparently, he hadn't been able to get completely lost though if these men had been able to find him. Derek blamed this aspect on his sister Laura, because the woman was a werewolf but had become to accustomed to being surrounded by hunters in Beacon Hills to realize that some people would rather avoid them altogether. The woman even though her family had been killed about four years ago still did not understand the fact that just because you were surrounded by thousands, even millions of people, it did not mean that you were automatically safe. Laura had probably been stupid enough to assume that after four years that there would not be any hunters that she would have to keep an eye on. Hunters which had found Derek instead, and had gotten ahold of something that they would want to sell to the highest bidder.

The truck suddenly stopped sending Derek slamming into the small cage which had been built like a dog cage just for him he supposed. The cage was just large enough for him to sit against the back, but he would have been unable to change his position without a great deal of struggling. The sudden bright light from outside made his eyes water after having been consumed in darkness, a silhouette of a man being outlined by the light. Derek was unable to make out the man's face but looked directly into what he hoped were the man's eyes. The look that he sent the man was a warning from Derek. Letting the man know that if he came anywhere near him that he would rip off the man's hand, he was going to hold back on the teeth and eyes until he figured out how smart this man was.

After his eyes had finally adjusted to the light he saw that the man had darker hair, accompanied by a pair of lighter eyes. But Derek was not fooled in the slightest by them, he knew that the eyes hid someone who easily would sell him for a good profit. Thinking about this made it so that Derek could not prevent himself from allowing a low growl to escape his throat as the man began to approach his cage, slowly creating less and less distance between the two of them. Derek eyed the man who had control of the collar around his neck from the corner of his eye, frowning as he noticed how far away the man was. The man who had been slowly approaching Derek was also smart enough to stop far enough away from the cage that Derek would be unable to grab him, frustrating him to no end. Derek continued to glare in the man's direction until an electric current ran through his body, not as bad as the one from earlier, but Derek knew that it was a warning. Derek was never one for warnings and continued to give the man a hard glare, earning himself another shock which served to lessen his gaze. But only so that he could get on with figuring out exactly what these men wanted.

"You seem to be under the impression that we are on equal standing. You are nothing but a mongrel, a monster which is a mutation that spreads its disease almost as badly as does the vampire." Already the man's voice was grating on his nerves, the fact that he believed himself to be superior to Derek was an annoyance. "You are a number to me, nothing more. The experimentation will be used to further science much like our experiments with vampires. I would tell you that there is no point in trying to escape but the look which I am receiving from you makes it very clear to me that it would be a waste of breath." Derek scoffed in response to what had just been said to him. Honestly, this man seemed to think that just because he was currently in a cage with a shock collar that he would not figure out a way to get free. This would be his downfall, believing that he was no more than a dog with little to no intelligence.

"You are the first of your breed to be housed here, so it will be a pleasure to see exactly just how you heal and how you react to the full moon." Derek's blood went cold upon hearing the fact that they would be testing to see exactly how his healing factor worked. The only upside to this was that they possibly had no idea as to the fact that he was not forced to turn every full moon, so he would possibly have the upper hand. The man looked at Derek as if he was evaluating what would be the best way to take him apart, which more than likely was the very case.

Telling the men to grab his cage and follow him, the man who Derek now knew immediately to be a scientist. The way that the man looked at him, Derek knew that he saw nothing of the human side of himself but saw the wolf side which could be seen as a monstrosity to other people. Derek knew that he was nothing more than a test subject to the man, and he was terrified because of the fact that he was the very first werewolf. Which meant that he was very valuable to the entire facility, wherever this was. The look which the man shot Derek clearly expressed that should he try and bite any of the men that he would feel how much electricity it took to knock out a werewolf, which Derek knew exactly how much but that was not the point.

Seeing another man approaching in the distance Derek stretched out his hearing, in the hope of being able to figure out at least some kind of name. This would make it so much easier to get revenge on the asshole when he was able to escape.

"Grayson, we are extremely excited to have the very first werewolf in this facility. But what about the she-wolf? There was supposed to be another, so that there could be a possibility of procreation." Derek nearly vomited upon hearing this. Procreation? With his biological sister? Ugh. The other man obviously noticed the look on Derek's face because he approached the cage, not in the slightest bit afraid of how Derek might be able to break out of his mobile prison. "You should feel honored Subject Alpha. You are the very first werewolf to grace the halls of Augustine. And Grayson Gilbert here will be your personal doctor."

Chicago - Present Day

Derek woke up, forcing himself not to jerk up though from force of habit in Augustine. The facility that had managed to get both his father and then himself had taken their toll on him just as they had back during the fifties with his father. Derek reached out with his senses, trying to tell exactly where he was at the current moment. The last thing that he remembered was that Klaus and he had gotten into his car and had begun to drive in the direction of the nearest open coffee place. Realizing that there was nothing around which was a current threat Derek opened his eyes and looked around, allowing his eyes to fill in the rest of the picture which his other senses had begun to form. A nice hotel room, a nice bed which he was laying on. The sound of the doors being opened had him up off the bed and located conveniently behind the doors in a perfect location to attack the person.

The familiar form of the elder Original hybrid walked through the door, and Derek immediately felt foolish upon not recognizing the scent of the other hybrid. Klaus cocked one of his eyebrows at the other man upon realizing that Derek might have attacked him had the younger man not realized exactly who he was. "You have a plan? Or were you going to just strike out and hope that I was an enemy of yours." Derek's blood ran cold upon hearing these words, what exactly had Klaus overheard?

"Only if you had tried to wake me up without coffee." Derek took the offered cup from the hybrid, sitting up in the bed and noticing as Klaus eyed his shirtless torso, causing Derek to slightly smirk. Then upon looking to the clock over in the corner nearly did a spit take. The clock read that it was nearly twelve o'clock in the afternoon. The only reason that he had probably been able to sleep as late as he had was because the nightmares had chosen to show the very beginning of his time at Augustine, when Grayson Gilbert had been nothing but an annoying scientist who knew nothing of different breeds of werewolves. Because of the fact that the other man had been more gifted in the area of vampires than in werewolves.

"Don't let the fact that I am giving you coffee let you think that I am going to allow you to destroy yourself much like you have been lately. The fact being that it is as much for my own protection as it is your own." Derek growled under his breath upon hearing what Klaus had to say to him. "The fact that you think that you can control my intake of coffee is adorable. The fact that I was able to have a somewhat good sleep last night was because I have yet to reach the worst part of them. Because apparently they're going to make me relive through them in the order in which the events happened." As soon as Derek had said this, he wished with every fiber of his being that he could take it back. It would only make the other hybrid even more curious as to what exactly these nightmares entailed.

"Who was it that hurt you so badly?" The look on Klaus' face is what shocked Derek the most upon hearing the question after it had left the hybrid's mouth. The fact that there seemed to be no ulterior motive from anything which the hybrid had done since meeting him was one of the main things which had shocked him. Choosing as to whether he wanted to answer honestly or as to whether he wanted to answer in an abstract way was something that was bothering him in the back of his brain. "It was not just one person." The truth decided to win out when it came time to respond to the other hybrid, the fact that the other man who was an all-powerful original made it more interesting in the fact that the other man had chosen not to lie to him since meeting him. The interest which appeared upon Klaus' face upon realizing that he had actually gotten a direct answer from Derek was almost funny. It would have been if it had not been in regard to the torture which Derek had received for years and years.

"People chose to take advantage of me for two years, and before then I did not trust people, and so it made it even harder to have trust after the fact. The fact that these people decided to take advantage and to use me makes it so that my trust in humanity is not very high." Klaus' expression had turned from one of inquiry to one of rage upon hearing that someone had chosen to abuse and hurt Derek. Then his gaze softened as he approached the other man who was sitting upright underneath the covers drinking the black coffee which the elder hybrid had given to the younger. Derek seemed to be lost in thought as Klaus sat down next to him, not noticing the fact that Klaus started tracing a circle on his bicep, trying to get the younger man's attention. When Klaus finally got the attention of the younger man, Derek realize how close that Klaus was and blushed slightly, the fact that he was in nothing but his boxers not helping in the slightest.

When Klaus closed in on Derek who was looking directly into Klaus eyes, the elder hybrid taking Derek's mouth with his own Derek closed his eyes. The sense of comfort and of even security which he felt in the older man's presence was nothing short of amazing. The two men's tongues battled in the passionate but slow kiss, neither man wanting to rush the brief moment which they were able to relish in at the current moment. Klaus drew in closer to Derek and the younger hybrid drew as close as possible, wrapping his arm around the other hybrid's upper arm. Klaus had placed his hand on the back of Derek's neck drawing the other man in closer with each second of the kiss that seemed to draw on for hours. When the two finally separated from each other they each rested their foreheads against one another, each man taking in slow breaths, not wanting to ruin the moment which had just transpired between the two of them. Derek finally opened his eyes and looked into the blue eyes of Klaus wondering how exactly he could feel so at home, and so comfortable in this man's presence. The only other man which he felt this comfortable in their presence was in his father's, and in his Uncle Peter's who would visit multiple times during the year, despite the advisement against the action by his own mother. Being around his Uncle Stefan was not awful, but he was never at ease in the man's presence because of something which had happened in his early childhood.

"Why do I feel so comfortable around you?" Derek breathed out after he had said these words and Klaus seemed to be asking himself the same thing. But before he could even voice the question the sound of Klaus' phone going off resounded in the background of the room. With the noise of Klaus' ringtone, the moment was broken, and Klaus answered his phone, the voice of Rebekah ringing through the air. When Klaus had finally finished talking to his sister he hung up and looked back into the face of the younger hybrid who was eyeing Klaus as if he was the most important thing in the world to him. The fact that Derek felt comfortable in the other man's presence was unusual for him, because of the fact that he had felt as if he was going to come out of his own skin ever since he had escaped from the clutches of Augustine.

"When I figure out the answer then I'll let you know as well." The small smile which Klaus gave Derek made the younger man feel warm inside. The sense of protection and comfort which the other man made him feel was a welcome feeling which he had not felt since before Augustine.

"So, Rebekah needs a new wardrobe then?" Klaus laughed upon hearing the question which was voiced from Derek who did not seem annoyed, but rather amused at the younger Mikaelson's antics. Klaus kissed the other man once again taking in every bit of the man who had just seemed to walk into this life, making him less paranoid and less angry at the entire world around him. Klaus placed his hand on the other man's cheek as the two continued to relish in the moment. Derek smirked at Klaus who seemed confused upon seeing the expression on the other man's face. "Does this mean that you want to date me? Because if not then I have a possible thing with one of the bartenders from Gloria's." The growl which erupted from Klaus' throat could only be described as being animalistic as the hybrid pinned Derek down on the bed, glaring daggers at the other man. "I don't know what you think, but I don't like to share men that I have chosen to make my feelings known to." Whatever else Klaus was going to add though was cut off by the sound of Derek's laughter from underneath Klaus who he had just messed with. Derek leaned up and then kissed the frown off of Klaus' face who had at first tried to give the other man a look which at least made it appear that he was angry at the younger hybrid but could not keep the appearance up upon feeling Derek's mouth upon his own, and the laughter which erupted from Derek.

"Don't worry, I'm just playing with you. For some reason every time that I am around you I feel the paranoia and the mistrust go to the back of my mind." Klaus smiled upon hearing the exact same words which he felt coming from Derek's mouth, the fact that the other man felt the same making him feel overjoyed. The younger hybrid then smirked and then ground up into Klaus causing a groan to come from the other man who immediately began to kiss down the other man's neck, but the moment was interrupted yet again by the sound of Klaus' phone going off in the room. Derek moaned aloud and then plopped his head back down onto the bed, Klaus making an identical moan upon realizing that it was probably his sister once again. "I dread when she actually gets her own phone and is not forced to use your uncle's phone for communication." Derek merely smirked before removing himself from underneath the other hybrid making his way towards the bathroom to get a shower in, asking where the other man had placed his clothes before heading toward the bathroom. Just before Derek had entered the bathroom the other man heard Klaus trying to get his attention. And when he had finally gotten the younger of the two's attention he listened to what Klaus had to say.

"Just so you know, I'll be there for you when you inevitably start to have those even more horrible nightmares. And when you're ready to tell me exactly what they were caused by… I'll be there for that as well too."

Neither man said anything after Klaus had spoken, letting the words hang in the air. The fact that Klaus had said the words to Derek meant more than the other man would ever know. Klaus knew that if Derek was anything like him, or like the elder Salvatore then there would be no explanation for a good while. While the other man would continue to suffer under the stress of the nightmares before he used the support which the older hybrid would offer. But the fact that the other man would be there was something which Derek had not had in two years, and the fact that Klaus would be there was the best thing Derek had had in two years. The lack of an ulterior motive was what made the other man's offer so incredible, and which made Derek trust Klaus even more than he already had, despite the paranoia and distrust he held for everyone. Because everyone had some type of ulterior motive.

Derek moved and kissed the other man deeply, biting Klaus' lip as he pulled away making Klaus moan aloud. When Derek pulled away with a smile Klaus groaned in annoyance. "I'm going to take a shower, wait for me then we'll go and meet Rebekah and Stefan together. Get me a coffee?" Klaus flopped back onto the bed with an audible groan. Then came back up with a smirk. "You don't want me to join you?" Derek smirked kissing Klaus once again, losing himself in the kiss with the other hybrid before pulling back once again. This time actually making headway in heading towards the bathroom. "If we did that then we'd be here all day, and I think that you actually want to make some process in finding a way to create more hybrids." Klaus frowned upon hearing the statement before he moved over to the side of the bed to grab his jeans which were laying on the floor.

"Will you be wanting to take a shower? Or are you just going to wait until later?" Derek said to the other man as he was pulling clothing out of his bag. "I can wait until later, because someone is unwilling to share the shower." Derek smirked as he made his way into the bathroom. "It's not that I'm unwilling to share, it's just that I figured you would want to actually make headway in creating hybrids." Klaus smirked at Derek's back as the other man closed the door behind him.

"You're not getting another cup of coffee by the way!" Klaus said through the door as he walked over to the phone and looked at the menu for room service.

"Fuck you!" Klaus laughed upon hearing the comment come through the bathroom door, the sound of Derek's voice making his emotions run wild. Klaus was going to keep an eye on the younger hybrid's caffeine intake. The other man may consume a lot of caffeine if his word was anything to go by, but he was not going to let the man pretend like the last two years had been nothing. Klaus had done that after the hunter's curse which he had been forced to go through and it had been nothing but stupidity.

In the bathroom

Derek was leaned up against the bathroom door, trying his best to keep his arousal at bay, and to keep from shoving open the door and pulling the other hybrid into the bathroom. The fact that the man kissed like a god was not surprising, but Klaus was able to turn him on like no one else ever had before. Walking over to the shower and turning it on after telling Klaus to fuck off, because that man had no right to try and control his caffeine intake, even if his heart was in the right place. After taking the time to undress, he stepped underneath the hot water of the shower, the steam completely enveloping the room. There was no way that a cold shower was going to cut it in regard to the arousal which he felt towards the other hybrid. Hopefully the other man would be unable to hear the sound of him jerking off from the next room, he highly doubted he would hear him. Since running water made it hard for him to hear things going on, which made it so that talking and sounds were muffled, even to his own newer hybrid senses, which were stronger than the previous werewolf ones.

Lowering his hand down to his arousal he took it in his left hand, the mere touch of his hand sending another shot of arousal straight through him. The pace which his hand was going was tortuously slow, but he knew that if he went much faster that he would release everything he had into the shower drain. His arousal throbbed as his thoughts went to the mouth of the Original hybrid, which seemed to be able to leave him tongue tied, and unable to form any kind of proper thought.

Derek's pace quickened as he imagined Klaus kissing him once again, that amazing tongue going from his mouth down, down, lower until Derek gasped as he came, his release spilling down into the drain. Derek gasping as he tried to recover from the orgasm which was still wrecking his body. He could just imagine the smirk on the face of Klaus, which sent another flutter thinking of Klaus and everything which the other man did to him. The constant banter which passed between the two of them, the fact that the other man felt affection for him was the best news which he had had in years. Derek had been afraid after his escape from Augustine that he would never be able to feel this kind of happiness again because of the paranoia which he constantly felt. Klaus made all of that paranoia and uncertainty get pushed onto the backburner. The fact that he had not ripped the man a new one for trying to get in between caffeine and himself was proof in and of itself. The fact that Klaus had not gotten his arm broken, or even his heart ripped out because of this was amazing, Derek thought as he finally got around to the cleaning part of the shower.

Finally turning off the shower he wrapped a towel around himself before climbing out and then getting dressed, smelling the aroma of fresh food coming from outside the bathroom door. Upon exiting the bathroom, he saw the other man who was sitting there drinking a fresh cup of coffee and Derek looked around for a cup which he would drink. Upon seeing another cup with steam coming off the top, he moved to drink the liquid and then looked down into the cup and then sent a glare in Klaus' direction. "What is this?" Klaus smirked before looking to Derek with a look which the hybrid must have thought to be funny. "It's tea." Derek sent a glare which would have turned lesser men to ash. "I know what the fuck tea is, but what is it doing in my cup?" The laugh that came from Klaus almost distracted Derek from the fact that he was trying to distract himself from the fact that the other hybrid was trying to get him to cut off on his caffeine intake. The fact that it had increased considerably since escaping from Augustine was neither here nor there. The nightmares would get worse, and he knew it. Derek did not want anyone else to have to deal with his nightmares, and he did not want to have to relive the entirety of his captivity asleep where anything could happen. But he knew that Klaus would make sure that he would deal with the damage which had been done by that fucking Gilbert, and all of the other so-called improvers of society.

"Some people would consider one cup of coffee to be enough for the morning routine." Derek grumbled as he took the first sip of tea that had been given to him by the other hybrid. Derek very narrowly avoided spitting out the tea when he swallowed, then chose to glare at Klaus, who was smirking upon seeing the exchange. "You didn't even fucking get caffeinated? I'm reconsidering this, I take back everything I said." Klaus laughed quietly to himself which Derek managed to hear because of his heightened senses. Klaus moved closer so that he was up in Derek's personal space, which surprised Derek. Because the only other person who could get this close without the lack of space driving him insane was his own father. The problem had gotten even worse as result of Augustine, and the fact that he had not seen his father in two years made him nervous for the meeting which was going to take place.

Klaus took Derek's lips into his own, using his tongue to explore Derek's mouth which made the other man groan at the skill from the other man. Derek felt as if he was going to melt from the pure desire which he felt for the other man. The feeling made him nervous as well though, because the man said that he would be there for him, but he had no idea as to what he had done to get out of Augustine. Derek knew that Klaus had killed people before, but the damage which he had received from Augustine made him question if the desire and feelings that Klaus felt for him would be enough. Enough for Klaus to look past all of the damage which had been done to him over the past two years. Every single one of these thoughts flew out of Derek's head upon feeling Klaus pushing him down onto the bed, the man pushing his hands up underneath Derek's shirt. Slowly inching up his torso, Derek was moaning by this point, the light touch of the other hybrid making him feel as if every single one of his nerves were on overdrive. The sense of touch heightened even more so than it had been as a werewolf.

The sudden ring of Klaus' phone brought two identical groans from both hybrids. "I swear that I am going to throw that bloody phone out of the window." Derek groaned upon realizing that what had been going on between them was over. "You better answer that, it'll be Rebekah, telling us to hurry up." Derek was straightening himself, trying to make the arousal less obvious, but by the look from Klaus he had failed miserably. Klaus with a smirk answered the phone, both Rebekah and him getting into an argument as Derek chose to begin eating from the breakfast which had been delivered when he had been in the shower. Trying not to smile to broadly upon seeing the sight of the bacon upon the tray he grabbed a handful, not caring if it was too much. When he had gotten out of Augustine he had eaten enough to put a five-hundred-pound man to shame. He was still trying to get back the weight that he had lost during those two years, living on practically nothing. Derek paid no notice to Klaus when he finally finished talking to Rebekah, or the look on his face from the amount of food he was consuming. Upon hearing a chuckle he looked to the man's face and saw that he was amused more than shocked, Derek raised an eyebrow as if to say so what to the other man.

"Rebekah, it seems is driving Stefan mad. She had told us that we should hurry up." Derek smirked upon hearing the words. "My uncle could do with some loosening up. Besides, there is no way that I am leaving before I finish my breakfast." Klaus smirked upon hearing this from the other man before accepting the everything bagel which Derek had offered to him, along with the cream cheese which he took the time to spread. "But know that if you try and drastically reduce my coffee intake, that I will more than likely end up ripping out someone's throat. Before I was even an adult my coffee intake was something to be seen. I once almost ripped off my uncle's arm because he thought that my coffee intake that Damon was allowing was horrible." The smile which had been on Klaus' face slightly grew smaller upon hearing the fact about Stefan.

"My uncle never approved of many things while I was growing up. But that made it all the more fun to annoy him." The smile which Derek sent Klaus' way was obviously meant as a distraction. A way to attempt towards getting the hybrid off the track of how the statement showed that it had affected the man more than he was letting on. The two men continued eating their breakfast though in a comfortable silence, the earlier statement not having affected their happy mood too much.


	5. Mercy

"I like it." The look that Derek sent over his way was murderous because of how much of a buzzkill he was being for the female vampire. Sure, he did not want to be here dealing with what was now approaching the second hour of shopping for Rebekah. Rebekah who had absolutely no clothing in the twenty-first century, but he was at least being a good sport about it. Stefan needed to lighten up or have more alcohol. Derek was gladly drowning himself in coffee, but the music was about to kill him. Derek was honestly confused as to how exactly his uncle had managed to keep a straight face while trying to lie to the Original vampire.

"What? I said that I liked it?" Honestly the fact that his uncle was trying to lie to Rebekah this horribly was increasingly more depressing and hilarious by the moment. Derek looked at Rebekah before she could say anything to Stefan in response to his horribly concealed attempt at a lie.

"Do not get that bloody dress, it's not beautiful enough to justify the price on the tag." Rebekah smiled at Derek genuinely. Derek smiled back broadly in return allowing her to see the rare, honest smile which he allowed very few people to see. Stefan looked surprised because of the genuine smile which his nephew had given the female vampire.

"Thank you! Someone who is actually helpful, unlike the two of you! Now if only we could do something about this music, because it's horrid. Please tell me that everyone does not listen to this music." Rebekah looked to both Stefan and Klaus who continued to drink their champagne, both men hoping to get drunk enough to live through the experience. Derek rolled his eyes. Wimps, the both of them. Honestly, he was increasingly more so happy that Damon had been his father rather than Stefan. Not that he had ever regretted it, especially what with the thing which Stefan had tried to pull off when he was younger. Derek looked immediately looked over his shoulder meeting the eyes of the person behind the desk in the boutique, shooting the woman a flirty look which his father would have been proud of.

"Think that you could change the music to something in the AC/DC area? Highway to Hell preferably." As the music changed Derek felt himself calming down and the headache which had begun to worsen softening, and the pressure behind his eye lessening. The sound of AC/DC washing over him continued to calm him down, and upon opening his eyes he looked once again to the man with another flirty look.

"Much better." Derek turned to look at the two men sat down beside him and felt himself pushing down the urge to look away. Away from the other hybrid who was not hiding the fact that he had been checking him out, and the fact that there was an enraged look. Was Klaus, jealous? Derek stored this information away for later use, the fact that he could use this later to get a rise out of Klaus would be interesting. Klaus was not looking at him anymore, but rather was looking at the woman behind the desk with such hatred that he was surprised that the woman had yet to drop dead where she stood.

"See something that you like Nik?" This seemed to bring Klaus out of his rage-filled daze, because the hybrid immediately looked Derek in the eyes. The hybrid's piercing gaze lingering for a good long moment. That eyes feeling as if he was looking straight into him from where his chin rested on his hand before Klaus smirked broadly.

"Yes indeed. But there's nothing that I can do about it in here." The sound of his uncle choking on his champagne made Derek smirk. It was always so much fun to mess with his uncle who despite being older than him was shocked every time his nephew had an attraction to anyone. The time which his uncle had walked in on him having sex with the boy from school had been one of his favorite instances. The sound of his uncle standing up caused both men and the female vampire to turn their heads to look at Stefan standing. The three of them watched as Stefan finished what was left of his champagne, knocking it back before setting it down on the table next to him.

"First of all, I said that I liked it. And second, I need a good and proper drink, and have something to do."

"I know when you're lying Stefan!" Derek who was looking at Rebekah as she was saying this did not miss the raised eyebrow. Derek smiled in way of response to the reaction just before she turned around, grabbing the outfit Derek pointed to before re-entering the dressing room. "Don't take this the wrong way Bekah, but anyone could tell if he was lying. He a horrid liar." Derek said this just before he took another long drag of his coffee Then paused upon feeling as if someone was looking at him he turned to see Klaus watching him. "What?"

"You should slow down on the coffee mate." Derek's eyes narrowed at the other hybrid before leaning back in his chair, spreading out comfortably. Derek tried his best to keep the glare on his face as he noticed Klaus scan his body, obviously checking him out scanning him from head to toe. Derek leaned forward placing his head on his hands, allowing a vicious smile to come across his face, a look which would have chilled any lesser man's bones.

"Would you like to know what exactly will happen should you even attempt towards cutting off my caffeine intake during the hours of the day? If you try and take away the beautiful thing which is caffeine. During the hours of the day which I enjoy the religious experience which is coffee. I will rip off at least a handful of, if not more than a handful of completely random people. And drink straight from where their heads used to be connected to their bodies just so that I can get some kind of fix which will keep me feeling that buzz which caffeine provides me with the entire day." Rather than being amused, annoyed, or even taken aback because of the blunt and even rude statement which he had said Derek saw a completely different reaction altogether.

As Derek took in the reaction which his statement had caused he felt the tightness in his jeans becoming somewhat problematic. The fact that Klaus was turned on by the fact that he was more than prepared to rip off and feed from the closest stranger just so that he could get that fix which caffeine provided him. Rather than being repulsed by the fact that the other hybrid was turned on by the obvious portrayal of violence, Derek felt himself being even more turned on by the fact. The fact that Klaus was not horrified by the broken aspect of himself was something which he had not felt in a long time. The person who had first accepted him had been Damon, and his father had never taught him to hide what he truly was in exception to something which would risk your own life.

Another image just shot into Derek's head, the image becoming more and more appealing the longer that Derek mulled over the idea in his head. The appealing thought of slowly torturing each and every descendant of the Augustine's came to the forefront of his mind. Instead of feeling that huge satisfaction from the thought which Derek almost always felt, Derek felt his mind shift. The thoughts in his head shifted from that of torture and death to that of the other Original hybrid and he immediately felt like he needed to get out of here before Klaus and himself ended up having sex on one of the chairs.

The sound of a door closing got Derek's attention and brought him back to the current time and place as his uncle walked straight out of the boutique. The questioning look which Derek sent Klaus' way made the hybrid chuckle. The humor which had been caused by the fact that the younger hybrid had been stuck so deeply in his own mind that he had not even heard anything that Stefan might have added to his destination before heading out the door.

"Your uncle is not nearly as fun as he used to be Derek." Derek was unsure as to the where his uncle was headed, but he knew one thing for certain. Saint Stefan had not exactly been normal after getting every single one of his memories back from Klaus during his time spent in Chicago. The fact that this went along with how nervous Stefan had been upon seeing Gloria. These facts made him question as to exactly what his uncle was planning to, more than likely though his uncle would start with the witch who was making him so nervous. Groaning aloud Derek threw back his head in annoyance with his eyes closed. And upon opening them with everything turned upside down because of his position, Derek felt as if the entire world had stopped spinning.

There, directly across the street was a man who he had been desperately hoping to meet. The appearance of the man caused Derek's smirk turn into a full-on homicidal grin upon realizing that it wasn't just some look-a-like or a figment of his imagination. Derek had been hoping to save this man till the very last so that he would know that someone had been killing off all of his so-called business partners. But he would be more than happy to kill him first by cutting out his heart as the man watched.

This man had during all of the experiments and procedures during his time at Augustine looked on with a gleam in his eye. And he would walk away from all of the session asking other men how else they could test Derek's abilities. The man had been more than happy to take over his father's place in Augustine when dear old Elias Fell had gotten his throat ripped out by Derek when they had not used enough wolfsbane to keep him down. Derek would deal with the weeds from Augustine by ripping out the weeds, and maybe even any potential growing weeds. Derek would decide after he had killed every person who had experimented on him, Derek truly wished that Grayson Gilbert had gone off and gotten himself killed. "Mate, you might want to stop smiling like that before someone thinks that you murdered someone."

"Who says that I haven't." The smile which Klaus sent his way, along with Rebekah made his smirk turn into a smile, oh if everyone only knew what he was going to do to that man who had watched on and then later cut into him at Augustine.

"I'm going for another coffee. Or maybe I'll go off and murder someone, who knows." Derek as he said this shot up from his seat before either Original could try to stop him. As he was walking away Derek was not privy to the frown which appeared on Klaus' face. The older hybrid had upon taking in the phrase last night which was tattooed on the inside of Derek's left arm been curious. The phrase fiat justitia ruat caelum would have seemed like such a simple phrase but due to the fact that Derek had obviously been through some kind of ordeal the hybrid doubted that it was just a simple tattoo.

There was no way that he was going to outright ask the other man without reason because he did not want to push too hard when the last thing which he wanted to do was harm Derek. Klaus shook his head as soon as these thoughts went through his head because there was an obvious attraction there but why was he so concerned about the other hybrid. Apart from the man being an original hybrid like himself there was no reason for such concern. When he had given the man such a kindness upon the other man's death Klaus had been confused with his actions even then because of how Derek was affecting him on such an emotional level.

Why was he so concerned about a simple tattoo when there were much more important things to be concerned about? Hybrids for example were much more important than Derek. Derek was an original hybrid and could take care of himself. For some reason though Klaus was unable to convince himself of this as he watched Derek walk out the door. The desire to follow the man and protect him confusing him more than any one person should be allowed to do.

The sound of someone approaching caused Klaus to turn and look to Rebekah who had just come out of the changing room with a look which Klaus could not decipher.

"You deserve to be loved Nik and Derek should know that he deserves love as well." Klaus looked at his sister his face guarded in an attempt to keep his emotions in control.

"Initiating a relationship to let someone know that they deserve to be loved would have the opposite affect dear sister." Rebekah rolled her eyes upon hearing what her brother had to say. "Alright Nik. I'll let you believe that you do not care for Derek. But know that if you hurt him we will have words because Derek despite what he has been through deserves nothing but the finest things." Klaus felt nervous upon hearing the words from his sister because when it was said like that there was no way that he deserved Derek.

"Don't allow those thoughts to run through your head dear brother. You deserve love as much as Derek." The original vampire began to walk back towards the changing room after saying this not looking back to see the expression of hope which went across her brother's face.

"And I have never seen two people more perfect for each other. You bring the darkness out in him and he brings the light out in you." Klaus took in everything which his sister had said trying to decide what exactly he was going to do with the advice. Because allowing himself to care about someone was to give someone the ability to truly hurt him but there had not been anyone who had gotten him to care as easily as Derek had. Because sure he had admitted to the hybrid that he was not willing to share him with anyone else but was he willing to go so far as to allow himself to let himself be consumed by these feelings. There was the desire which he constantly felt for the other man and no doubt a calm and even peace around Derek, but he had no idea as to what this all meant.

Stefan

As Stefan looked around for a familiar set of brown hair he kept an ear out for Derek because he knew that he had left the boutique not too long after him. Upon spotting Katherine Stefan approached her, double checking once again to ensure that Derek was nowhere in the vicinity. Evidently, he was just getting another coffee. The fight to get Derek to cut back on the caffeine would be all Klaus', he was not going to fight that battle thank you very much. There was no way that he was risking life and limb again. He had learned the ending to that lesson years ago and he had no need of a remedial course.

The smirk which Katherine displayed as she pushed off of the post which she was leaning against gave Stefan an uneasy feeling. A smirk from Katherine Pierce was never a good sign, but Stefan knew that it had to be something important. There was no other reason as to why Katherine would be in the same time zone as Klaus.

"You look chummy with Klaus and his new little lackey. Is Klaus your new bestie?" Stefan smirked upon hearing the question which Katherine sent his way. The smirk was the vampire's attempt to conceal the fact that the line of questioning made him nervous. To say that Damon would be more than a little upset if Stefan revealed that Derek was his son would be an understatement. Stefan had no idea if Katherine knew of Derek's relation to Damon, but Damon had tried pretty hard growing up to keep his son safe. Telling Katherine as to who exactly the other man was would be the exact opposite of keeping Derek safe.

"He is not Klaus' lackey." Katherine made a noise upon hearing this. There was an obvious disbelief from the older vampire if the noise was anything to go by.

"Trust me. You're either his victim or you're just simply being used by Klaus. There is no other category for the immortal hybrid and people which choose to follow him." Stefan smirked upon hearing the words. Oh, if only Katherine knew. "Trust me, he's not. But why are you in Chicago Katherine? If Klaus finds out that you're here, then you're dead."

"Happy to know that you still care. The bigger question is why was Damon in Chicago?" Katherine finished the question with a smirk which made Stefan more nervous than he would like to admit in the face of the Petrova doppelgänger. "My older brother was here to attempt to yet again get me to come back to Mystic Falls." Katherine rolled her eyes upon hearing this statement. "I don't understand why exactly everyone wants to come back to that little Hamlet. It's such a bore of a town, England and Italy are so much more interesting." Stefan actually laughed upon hearing the statement from Katherine because the female vampire was correct in that regard. Anywhere else was more interesting than Mystic Falls.

"Besides I still think that Damon's appearance has something to do with that other hybrid."

"What exactly do you want Katherine?" Katherine rolled her eyes at Stefan's pitiful attempt towards deflection. "Fine. I'll lay off for a while only because it will be much more satisfying when I figure out the answer for myself. But the necklace. Isn't that the very one that you gave to Elena?" Stefan started walking away from Katherine wanted to escape the line of questioning which would more than likely result in the destruction of his plan to keep Elena safe.

"I'm going to look into that other hybrid Stefan but the decision you make right now will decide as to when I start looking into him. I'm incredibly bored as of right now, so bored in fact that digging up a person's history would be incredibly satisfying." Stefan's blood ran cold as soon as Katherine finished because if Stefan did not give Katherine something to run with then there was no way that Katherine would not find out who exactly Derek was in regard to Damon and himself. Groaning internally Stefan turned around to give Katherine something so that it would delay the inevitable search into Derek and he would need to warn Damon as well after this self-destructive conversation.

"Whatever you're planning to do Klaus will figure it out Stefan you're not devious enough and he now has that other hybrid who will likely do whatever Klaus wants him to do." Stefan wanted to laugh upon hearing the idea of Derek following Klaus without question like a slave.

"Katherine if the most devious person that I know can't figure out what my plan is then I have a feeling that the plan must be somewhat competent. And don't worry about the other hybrid I know for a fact that he will not interfere with the plan." Katherine's eyes narrowed upon Stefan's lack of concern for the wild card which the other hybrid clearly was. Wondering yet again what exactly Stefan knew or saw in the hybrid that she couldn't see. There was no doubt that Stefan somehow knew him before Klaus but there was the annoying question as to how.

"When you end up getting betrayed by that hybrid and Klaus ends up hunting you down you'll look back on this and regret not taking my help." Stefan turned to walk away from Katherine knowing that he had already given too much information as it was and that he was lucky that Derek's relation to him hadn't been revealed. "Just answer me one question Stefan." The younger vampire stopped upon hearing Katherine calling out to him curious as to what exactly the other vampire was going to ask.

"How do you know that the other hybrid isn't going to tell Klaus about your plan Stefan?"

"Because he doesn't know the plan. He knows nothing of Elena or what has been going on. And he would not follow the plan because he hates liars, and I have done too much to ask him to lie for me." Walking away from Katherine who was taking in everything that had been said Stefan felt a sense of foreboding which he could not manage to shake as he pulled out his phone to find out where exactly Klaus and Rebekah were.

Stefan wanted to keep Derek out of everything related to Elena knowing that it would be in vain. What concerned him though was the anger which had seemed to surround Derek ever since he returned. Stefan was afraid that Derek would lash out much like Damon tended to do, and the bad thing was that when he lashed out that no one would be able to stop him.

"Stefan!" The younger vampire turned around and looked at Katherine who looked as if she was trying to figure out what she wanted to say. "Be careful." Stefan smirked and then looked to Katherine telling her that her humanity was showing before he walked away. Katherine frowned because of how Stefan was acting. Klaus was going to bring both Stefan and the other hybrid down with him because that was what Klaus always did. But she was here for another reason and the person that she was meeting with would be waiting for her. Heading off towards the bar which had one of her many contacts she hoped that there would be some kind of discovery from a simple look into Damon and his unnamed relative.

As Katherine entered the bar she took in each and every exit and entrance inside of the bar so that if there was need for an escape there would be less confusion. Remembering the very first time that she entered this bar for information on a certain person that Damon had asked about.

 _Late 2009_

 _Looking around Katherine finally spotted her contact who was sitting farther off in a corner with a bottle of whiskey which he was drinking. Looking down at her watch Katherine smirked upon noticing that it wasn't even noon yet, but she smirked knowing that she was the last person to judge someone for their vices._

 _When she sat down in front of Lucian she took in the man's appearance because of how different the man appeared from the last time she had seen him. Dark chocolate brown hair had been replaced for honey blonde hair which somehow seemed to fit the man's appearance, but she was still a sucker for the chocolate brown locks which had been just on the edge of being called black. When Lucian looked up to Katherine she had to keep herself from pausing right then and there because of the gaze which he sent her way. The pale crystal blue eyes always felt as if they were looking right through her because of the icy blue of his eyes._

 _The smirk which Lucian sent her way brought an identical smirk to her own face because of the happiness which Lucian brought Katherine. Lucian was one of very few people who she would actually call a friend, both of them had used the other for resources through the years and there was a familiarity between the two. Katherine watched with humor in her eyes as Lucian tossed back what little whiskey had remained in the glass directly in front of him with a smirk._

 _"_ _Kat. It's been a while since you've called upon my services. Recreational or otherwise." Lucian was in rare form today the female vampire thought to herself as she took in the man's appearance. "Is someone after you Lucian?" The man smirked upon hearing the question which had come from the brunette's mouth obviously some kind of joke was running through his brain._

 _"_ _Just the opposite actually. I'm working on another project for someone else and the mark prefers blondes over brunettes." Smirking Katherine took the bottle which Lucian offered her and after taking a long swallow from the bottle the alcohol burning her throat as it went down. "Same old Lucian always working a mark."_

 _"_ _You say that like it's a bad thing. And let me remind you that you were more than willing to use my particular set of skills."_

 _"_ _Speaking of those skills what did you manage to find out about the particular mark. And did you find out anything particularly interesting or useful?" Lucian glared at Katherine, but it held no true heat before he pulled out a stack of papers from the laptop case which was on the ground leaned up against his chair along with a flash drive which he handed the female vampire. Katherine placed the flash drive inside of her purse before looking down at what Lucian had placed on the table. She frowned upon seeing an unusual small amount of information which was odd for someone of Lucian's caliber._

 _"_ _What is with the lack of information Lucian? You usually have a great deal more than this. Do you at least have a name?" Rather than explaining as to the unusual lack of information Lucian opened up the file which he had placed upon the table and brought attention to a piece of information on the page "The guy's name is Derek Nyx Salvatore. Does Damon Salvatore know that you're looking into his son?" Nothing was said in reply to this as Katherine was still reading the page and was taking in what had been set in front of her frowning upon reaching a certain part of information. Because Damon had mentioned that he was family but not the part about him being the werewolf adoptive son. She had known that Damon had a son, but Damon had not told her that this was who she was looking for. "Damon actually adopted the kid?" Lucian nodded flipping through the pages until he reached a page that had the entire page practically blacked out. Katherine looked to Lucian as if expecting some kind of joke but when the other vampire said nothing she sent him a look clearly displaying how displeased she was._

 _"_ _This page is practically just one huge black out Lucian. What was the point of even printing out this page?" Lucian repositioned himself so that his arms were now across his chest and the look which was displayed upon his face immediately interested Katherine because if Lucian had been unable to obtain even simple documents from a first glance then there was something going on. Lucian then pointed down at the picture which was at the top of the page and picture revealed a child who looked resigned to whatever was going on._

 _"_ _That kid right there is the son of Damon Salvatore." Katherine nodded while making a motion with her hand for Lucian to spit out whatever point that he was trying to make._

 _"_ _Take a closer look at the few words which are not blacked out and tell me what these papers are Katherine." She rolled her eyes looking back down at the few words which were not blacked out and realized that these were papers for the adoption of Derek Salvatore. Then Katherine noticed what was unusual about the papers is that there was no mention of whatever Derek's original name had been. The document contained Damon's name, and it contained the name of Derek Salvatore but there was no mention of who exactly Derek's original family was._

 _"_ _Where did you get this?" Lucian looked grim upon hearing the question._

 _"_ _These documents were hidden deep in child services Kat. I had to steal them because I was unable to compel or even bribe anyone to give me these files. This little bit of information was important enough for these people to be drinking vervain so that no one would be able to obtain the documents through compulsion and these aren't even the originals. Whoever Damon obtained Derek from does not want anyone to know that the kid is from their family." Katherine's was trying to wrap her head around the fact that the brat that Damon had adopted was important enough to protect._

 _"_ _Kat whoever erased whatever past that this kid had was an expert as well because when I tried to look into who he may have been there was nothing. I'm not talking about a single Google page of nothing I'm talking about absolutely no information. And when I reached out to my contact in child services asking about the kid they hung up. The only information available about Derek Salvatore is post adoption by Damon. There's no proof that Derek was even his real first name and for all I know it could be a totally different name because Damon could have changed it." Katherine did not answer Lucian even after he had finished the talk about how Derek was practically a ghost before his adoption. Thinking back to the conversation Damon and she had not too long ago where Damon had asked for her help, but he had not revealed that Derek was his son only that a relative of his was looking for him. Damon had been somewhat frantic but she had figured that this had been because of what she had told him of her love for Stefan and never for him._

 _A Week Earlier..._

 _"_ _There has to be some way that you can find him Katherine! There has to be a way for you to find him! His father is frantic, and you knew where I was, and I know that you did because Anna told me as much!" Katherine's face was completely serious before a smirk came to rest in its place._

 _"_ _I only cared enough so that I could avoid you Damon. It was always Stefan. Why would I help the person who stalked me up until you stopped because of the child that you supposedly got stuck with? I should thank the kid though because they kept you from being able to follow me like a dog after a bone." Damon felt manic upon realizing that Katherine knew absolutely nothing. That all of this searching had been for nothing. There had to be something that he could do to convince her to use any of her resources to find what he would allow her to believe was a distant relative. Damon barely kept from smirking upon thinking of a plan which would get results._

 _Breaking off the leg of a nearby chair Damon then ran at Katherine and shoved her up against the wall and in the same motion shoved the stake into the wall through her stomach so that she was unable to move due to being stuck to the wall._

 _"_ _You have to be able to find something Katherine! This guy is a distant relative and distant or not I still care about what's left of the Salvatore family and Stefan wants to find him before he ends up dead. I told him that the kid was probably off on a bender, but Stefan is desperate to find him because of his loyalty and all." Damon allowed some of the desperation to find his son to come out because he truly was desperate. Derek was more important to him than life itself and if he could get Katherine to find Derek without revealing that Derek was his son then it would be all the better._

 _"_ _Losing a child is nothing if not excruciating. Distant family or not." The sadness which as displayed across Katherine's face confused Damon for a moment before he remembered that she had lost a child while still a human. Damon pulled the stake out of Katherine, allowing it to fall to the floor. Katherine never looked to Damon as she walked towards the door._

 _"_ _I'll put out some feelers for your family member and see if there's any hint as to where he may have gone. But you'll owe me. And I will come to collect Damon."_

 _Damon looked sharply to where Katherine had been standing just moments before. The fact that Katherine had been willing to help him and knew that it was more than likely because of the mention of Stefan. Damon truly did hope that Katherine would not look too deeply into Derek because she would use Derek if she found out about his biological family. But he was becoming more desperate every day because Derek had already been missing for well over a year and would have been missing for two this coming May. Damon refused to believe that Derek was dead and would continue with this belief without a body to prove otherwise._

 _Late 2009_

 _"_ _Have you told anyone else about this Lucian?"_

 _"_ _No because I figured that you would want to do something with the information."_

 _"_ _I don't want anyone finding out about this alright? Keep researching but I don't want people looking into Derek's background because Damon was obviously keeping it quiet for a reason. If you find out who Derek's biological family is then tell me along with anything else that you find out. But if I find out that you've used the information to hurt either Derek or Damon then I will kill you. You don't tell any of your sources who exactly you're looking into and when they ask then you do not give a name. You do not leave any tracks understand?"_

 _"_ _How exactly do I go about finding a person who I'm not even sure that his name was Derek before he was adopted by Damon?" Katherine gave the male vampire a look before rummaging through her purse and pulling out her cellphone. "Derek's a werewolf correct? Well not many werewolves would give up one of their own willingly so look into that Lucian."_

 _"_ _There's probably millions of children who were given up for adoption in the year 1994 Katherine!"_

 _"_ _On the bright side you can just look into the boys around age five and I'm not asking you to do this for free Lucian I'm paying you. And you enjoy work like this so don't act like you're not going to enjoy this."_

 _After double checking to make sure that the flash drive was secure and not going to fall out of her purse Katherine stood and walked away from Lucian thinking about what exactly she was going to tell Damon because she didn't want him knowing about how she knew of Derek's actual relation to him._

 _Because as good of a tactic that using someone's child against a person was she detested the fact that someone should they find out about Derek would use the same tactic on Damon. And more than likely this person would be Klaus who she was determined to outmatch because she was a survivor first and foremost. And Klaus was the one thing which threatened her survival._

Present Time

Katherine upon seeing Lucian noticed that he seemed to be trying to contain excitement about something because the man was smiling broadly at her from across the bar. When Katherine reached Lucian, he stood up and pulled her into a light hug which Katherine returned whole heartedly. When Lucian placed his mouth next to her ear Katherine nearly flinched but kept up appearances just in case there was someone watching them.

"I've found out something earth-shattering, but we can't talk about it here Kat there are too many ears." Katherine pulled back from Lucian and gave him a look which hid the distrust which she felt upon hearing that Lucian wanted to change their location.

"You can choose the location Kat, but we can't speak here because there are people listening." Katherine flashed a flirty smile Lucian's way, putting on a show for whoever else was in the bar and grabbed his hand pulling him along with her. Taking a roundabout way to reach her hotel to get rid of anyone who was following the two of them Katherine looked to Lucian sitting in the passenger's side seat of her car giving him a look.

"What exactly did you do Lucian? The entire time that we've been looking into Derek I've told you to be discreet. If these are people looking for you because of Derek I'm going to give them your dead body." Lucian laughed before looking to Katherine even though he knew full well that the female vampire was telling the truth.

"Those men were not here because of Derek. The man that I am investigating, his wife thinks that I am sleeping with him." Katherine raised her eyebrows upon hearing what Lucian had to say to explain himself. "You need to be more careful while you're helping me with this Lucian I need to obtain any and all information about this kid that I can. He's been missing for two years and I need some insight as to where he may possibly be." The smile which Lucian sent her way as the two of them walked into the five-star hotel which she was currently staying at made her more than a little curious.

"What are you hiding Lucian?"

"All in good time Kat. You need to be sitting down for this. I've finally made the breakthrough about Mr. Salvatore's family." Katherine's head whipped around to face the man as they rode up the elevator towards the penthouse.

As soon as the two of them entered the room Katherine checked each and every room to ensure that nobody was hiding anywhere in the penthouse. After checking the entire apartment she finally returned and threw down everything on the couch and sat down facing Lucian who was sitting in one of the leather armchairs in the sitting area.

"You finally cracked it." Lucian smirked and then frowned causing Katherine to glare at the other vampire because of how he might be holding back on her. "I've almost cracked everything. There're still some things such as much of what he did before age five but I did find out the important things. Family." Katherine leaned forward upon hearing the word family. The two of them had been looking into how exactly Damon had known about Derek and why the man adopted the young werewolf since late last year. The restrictions and the need to keep anyone from discovering their search into Derek was what had slowed down the search into his past. And the fact that each and every person seemed to be on vervain so there was the lack of compulsion allowed and the death of however many hundreds of people would have brought attention to them.

"If you weren't sitting down then I would tell you to sit down. The information that I have is groundbreaking. Earthshattering in fact." Katherine rolled her eyes motioning for him to continue on.

"So, the reason why whoever gave Derek up went to Damon is because Derek is Damon's great grandson or something like that. Derek is actually a Salvatore in blood." Katherine's eyes actually widened upon hearing this. The fact that Derek was an actual Salvatore in not just name was something that she had truly had not been expecting. "They're actually related? But Derek is a werewolf?"

"I was looking into Damon and evidently there was a bastard son which Damon had and the mother married into another family. Damon had evidently wanted to marry the woman, but Giuseppe Salvatore had not approved of the match which was a contributing factor behind Damon being sent off to war. Following that note though Damon's bastard son kept the Salvatore name even though his mother changed her name to that of her husband. And the reason why Damon did not have the werewolf gene is because of the fact that the Salvatore's are of a breed of werewolf unlike the Lockwood's. Not every single person has the werewolf gene, but it can still be passed down through the line."

"You're not getting to the point which you were supposed to be making Lucian and it's incredibly annoying."

"Damon Salvatore's son had the werewolf gene and then eventually married into another incredibly old werewolf family." The broad smile which was on the man's face was beginning to annoy Katherine because of how Lucian was refusing to get to the point.

"Damon's son later married into the Hale family." The surprise about being Damon's great whatever was nothing compared to this. "Derek Salvatore is Derek Hale?!"

"Yeah. Derek Nyx Salvatore is both a Hale and a Salvatore. Talia Hale gave him up for adoption a few years ago because of an incident with a hunter. I only found this out because I was able to convince the police department in Beacon Hills that I was looking into cold cases for a related murder. But yes Derek is the son of Talia Hale who used to be the leader of one of the most influential werewolf packs in North America."

"What happened to her?" Lucian rather than saying anything pulled out a document and showed Katherine a newspaper clipping about a fire from 2004. The newspaper talked about the Hale's and the amount of death's which had occurred as result.

"Do you at least have a picture of the man now?" Lucian smirked before pulling a piece of paper from his back pocket which he unfolded. "I finally managed to get the DMV record of Mr. Derek Nyx Salvatore." Katherine took the piece of paper from Lucian and upon looking down at the paper sighed before cursing. The male vampire looked incredibly confused upon seeing Katherine's reaction. "What's going on Katherine?"

"Mr. Derek Salvatore is in Chicago right now and he is no longer just a werewolf he is a hybrid who Klaus is keeping around. Which is why Stefan said that he would not make Derek lie for him. Because he's family. And Derek is going to end up being brought down by Klaus somehow but what I don't understand is where exactly was Derek for two years? Any ideas on that?"

"No idea whatsoever. Derek just seemed to vanish into thin air during May of 2008. There was no activity on any of his cards or cellphone for the two years which he was missing. The kid reappeared this year around the beginning of summer. So, Derek was not missing because he was off on some deserted island. There was some reason as to why he was missing, and it can't have been anything good." Katherine stood up immediately and headed straight for the door much to Lucian's confusion. "Where exactly are you going Kat?"

"I have to keep an eye on Derek and wait for the opportune time for a meeting with Mr. Derek Salvatore." Making sure that everything was in order Katherine entered the elevator and then took it down to the ground floor. But before the doors closed Katherine looked to Lucian before asking him if he was actually sleeping with the man.

"I sometimes like to include pleasure with business." Katherine smirked upon hearing what Lucian had to say. Because of course Lucian would be sleeping with the man, but she was not one to judge because she had done the same thing more times than she could count.

Random Street in Chicago

Derek used his senses to stretch out and take in everything around him. All of the scents and the sounds which threatened to overwhelm his senses which had grown exponentially ever since he had become a hybrid. Derek cursed at himself for losing sight of Arthur Fell who was one of the men at the top of his list.

Arthur Fell who had been one of the men who had relished in the experiments and enjoyed cutting open not just Derek but many other supernatural creatures which had been contained in Augustine. Derek had been hoping to save Arthur Fell for last so that he would get stressed out because of how his friends were dropping like flies but since the opportunity had arisen he would gladly take it.

Derek sighed as he tried to hone in on where Arthur Fell may be and finally closed his eyes to get rid of the visual distraction. Using his enhanced hearing he listened out for either the voice or even the smell which Derek had practically burned into his memory from the two years in Augustine. Derek smiled upon realizing that he had been able to locate Arthur Fell who from the sound of things was located just outside of the market which was not too far from here. Derek could tell because of the sound of a guitar which was nearly concealing Arthur Fell's voice. With a smirk Derek began to head that way making sure that he would not be spotted by Arthur as he followed the man until he was able to push him into an alley way feeling no small amount of satisfaction that the man cowered when he was shoved up against the brick wall.

The fact that the man was going to die in an alleyway which smelt of piss and vomit brought no small amount of satisfaction to Derek as he waited for the man to realize just who exactly had him. The surprise from the man at being pushed into the alley turned into shock upon coming face to face with Derek who had a smirk upon his face at knowing that he caught Arthur Fell off guard.

"001A." Anger upon hearing the name caused the grip which he had upon Arthur Fell's neck to tighten but seeing that the man began to turn a particular shade of violet he loosened his hold. Taking in the appearance of the man before him it brought disappointment because of the reality of the situation which was laid out before him. The fact was that the man which had Derek's hand wrapped around his throat should be held responsible for the deaths of the mass of vampires and other supernatural creatures' deaths.

Derek was going to kill Arthur Fell but it made it almost bittersweet that there would be no further repercussion other than the hell which this Fell would face. Derek was going to kill each and every single Augustine and connection to Augustine which he faced but it made it no less disappointing how the weak group of humans was able to create such an organization which Derek victim to had been for two years.

The sound of sputtering brought Derek back to the present to see that his hand had tightened once again so that Fell was purple in the face which Derek allowed for a moment longer before loosening his hold. As his hand loosened Derek looked into the eyes of one of the men who had been part of his own personal circle of hell for two years give or take. It was almost painful as to how easy it would be for him to rip out the man's heart and leave it for the rats and any other vermin to cover up the crime. But he needed to be smart about this, and also ripping out the man's heart would have been such an easy and simple thing to do.

When Arthur Fell had finally managed to gain his breath Derek waited until the man was looking at him before he allowed a malicious smirk to appear on his face. The smirk threatened to turn into a full-on smile as the waves of fear which had been steadily coming from Arthur Fell only increased making Derek happy that this man would know only fear before he died a slow agonizing death. Derek smirked upon seeing the pain in the man's eyes which was accompanied by the sound of a loud crack which was a result of Derek breaking one of Arthur Fell's ribs with a smile upon his face.

Derek had to give the old man credit as much as he hated to do so. Because even when he had broken the man's rib there had been little to no reaction other than the movement from his eyes and a wince.

"We'll have to see just how long it'll take before you're screaming out like so many of the victims of Augustine." Any response which Arthur Fell might have said in response to Derek was cut off by the sound of Derek breaking Arthur Fell's wrist the loud crack resounding out through the alleyway which sent the nearby rats scurrying away for cover.

"What I want to know is why? Why did you start experimenting on vampires and other supernatural creatures? What gives you the right to capture us and to hide us away?" The lack of response from Arthur Fell only served to piss Derek off even more and he gripped the man's wrist which brought a moan from the man. "I said answer me!"

"We decided that vampires were already dead, so humanity might as well use them to improve life for the living. For what is the purpose of a creature that survives only by sucking the life from the actual living?" Derek's blood felt as if it was boiling because of the anger which the statement which only showed the cold-blooded nature of Augustine.

"And me? What was the purpose of capturing a person who was actually alive and living their own life?" Arthur actually smirked broadly upon hearing this. "We captured you because we wanted to know how someone who was a supernatural creature could thrive without sucking out their life like a vampire. That was why you nearly died when you were first taken into Augustine. We forgot to take into the account that you were an actual living thing and not a leech like all of those vampires." Derek finally lost his temper and shoved the butt of his hand into the left side of the man's rib cage breaking four if not five of the man's ribs in the process. When the process actually brought a scream from the man Derek smiled maliciously because of how he had actually brought a scream from one of his tormenters. Derek then placed his hand against the sternum of Arthur Fell thinking that he could rip out the man's heart and have one less Augustine to deal with but then that would defeat the purpose of trying to appear as if it had been a mugging gone wrong. Then it hit him.

"Are you going to do it? Or are you too afraid of what hell will come to punish you?" Derek said nothing as he continued to rest his hand upon the other man's sternum. Derek placed more pressure on the sternum causing the man to grimace because of the added pressure which was placed upon the more than likely already bruised area of his body. The fact that Derek was silent seemed to either unnerve or make the other man angrier, Derek was unable to tell which one but if he had to choose it would probably have been the latter. Derek cocked his head, continuing to look at the man who had helped in causing him so much pain and suffering for two years of his life. The fact of the matter was that Arthur Fell was just a man. A man like every other person who had helped in creating his own personal hell where Augustine was concerned. Fell seemed to finally grow tired of the lack of emotion and blank expression on Derek's face because he yelled in anger at the lack of action on Derek's part.

Derek looked into Arthur Fell's face as the anger of the man before him was displayed for anyone to see if there had been anyone to save the man. Derek leaned in so that he was in the face of the older man, so close that the stench of his breakfast from earlier still remained making the man's breath rancid. Looking into the eyes of a man that had once been his tormenter he smirked before ripping off Fell's watch feeling a faint burn, but it was nothing compared to what he had been put through in Augustine. "You idiots still refuse to drink vervain thinking that this is a weakness. You would think that such an old man would be wiser." Derek then looked into Fell's eyes once again before the hybrid seemed to have finally made his decision.

"I want you to struggle. I want you to suffocate and reach for that breath which you will be unable to obtain. I want you to die knowing that in the end your precious science couldn't save you when I decided to come and take my revenge because of what you did to all of us. I want you to die here knowing that as I command your lungs to constrict and refuse to take in any breath that you could have avoided this by having some shred of decency." Derek looked on as Arthur Fell took in the realization that his lungs weren't going to be taking in anymore air. And that his own body was being used against him.

Just before the man's lungs began to constrict the Augustine member looked directly into Derek's eyes and with that last and final breath chose to speak rather than to die silently.

"You won't hear me beg for mercy 001A." Derek watched in anger as the man struggled and continued to fight even though he knew that there was nothing that could be done to save himself. Then finally as Arthur Fell's body sagged and Derek allowed the empty husk to drop to the ground he looked at the man with what could almost be described as disappointment before saying to the dead body.

"Good for you asshole."

As Derek began to walk away he heard an almost imperceptible noise which he might not have heard had he still been a werewolf, but he would never know. There had been a lingering scent earlier, but he had passed the scent off as non-threatening when whoever it belonged to had not revealed themselves. Derek extended his senses out so that he would be able to stop an attack should some lone vampire or possible Augustine lackey try and attack him. Because as much as the threat of being attacked by another vampire was unnerving he really needed another cup of coffee so that he would be able to get through the night of not having any caffeine because of Klaus and his desire to try and help him. Derek knew that Klaus meant well because it was something which he would have done without taking away the person's caffeine, but it didn't mean that it was any easier. And the nightmares were going to drive him insane before the lack of caffeine did.

As Derek began to walk towards the nearest coffee house he made sure to keep his senses extended so that he would be able to keep track of whoever it was that was tracking him. It wasn't Klaus and he knew that the other man would give him enough space to deal with whatever Derek had needed to deal with. The older hybrid had known that it hadn't been just a simple coffee run and Derek respected the fact that the other man gave him that space. It was interesting how the man trusted him more than he trusted Stefan though considering the fact that he had known Stefan back during the twenties. It was probably because of how horrible a liar his uncle was, and he knew that the man was hiding something. And if he knew then there was no doubt in his mind that the other Original hybrid would know as well.

Gloria's Bar

As Stefan walked into Gloria's he took in the scene of Gloria with a grimoire laid out in front of her while Klaus and Rebekah were both sitting down, the obvious tension between the three of them made him feel as if sparks would fly at any moment. The first thing that he immediately noticed upon entering the bar was that his nephew was absent, and it concerned him. Because his nephew was not only now a hybrid, but he was also one of the two only original hybrids in existence. If he lost control then there would be nothing that was going to be able to stop him except maybe Klaus, and he doubted that the older hybrid would stop his nephew from the destruction he would no doubt bring should he lose control.

"You left us."

"Retail therapy was making my head hurt. But have you seen Derek because I'm pretty sure that when I left that he was still with you." Klaus made a face which Stefan was unsure how to interpret before the familiar smirk appeared on the older vampire's face. "He went out for a coffee mate don't worry. Derek seems to have had the right idea though because this witch is failing." Klaus glared in Gloria's direction as he said the last part because of the annoyance at having broken his curse only to have something as trivial as a necklace getting in the way of figuring out a way to solve the problem of creating hybrids.

When Rebekah offered herself as a solution Klaus seemed to be somewhat soothed by this, but Stefan couldn't help but notice that there was something wrong with the hybrid, but he couldn't ascertain as to what this may be. Stefan was distracted by this upon realizing that Gloria would be able to find the necklace possibly with Rebekah's help since she wore it for however long. And in finding the necklace there would be the discovery of Elena which brought no small amount of stress. When Gloria gained an expression, which made Stefan want to run back to Mystic Falls the sound of Klaus standing up and approaching Gloria made him desperate for any way of distracting the older vampire. Approaching the older vampire as he was telling Gloria that they could wait Stefan mentioned that he was hungry which brought a smirk to Klaus' face that only served to make Stefan more nervous. When he was able to get the two older vampires out of the bar Stefan felt no small amount of relief, but it would be much better if he knew just exactly where Derek was at this moment in time.

Outside Starbuck's

Derek frowned as he looked down at his phone which had just recently died. The fact that his phone had died and that there wasn't an Original hybrid out looking for him was somewhat surprising but the presence which was still following him was getting somewhat annoying. Realizing though that he was going to have to find the rest of the group he began to head off towards Gloria's only to be stopped by the sound of someone appearing not too far away from him.

"You should probably be more careful about where you torture and kill people. It may not be little old me that finds out next time." Derek nearly killed the female vampire right then and there. The face he recognized as Katherine from a picture which Damon had caught him looking at when he had been much younger. "You should also pay more attention to your surroundings so that some random vampire doesn't end up killing you." What surprised Derek was the fact that Katherine when she said this to him did not sound as if she was trying to be condescending but rather more helpful. The fact surprised him because of how he had spoken to many vampires through the years and each one for the most part that had been over one hundred years old had spoken with that condescending tone. The tone which she had said this to him with was almost laced with what may have been concern. Derek mentally filed away the scent which the female vampire had given off so that he would be able to recognize it should need be even though he had no doubt that after this encounter that she would attempt to alter her scent.

"Just for your information I knew that you were tracking and even following me as soon as Arthur Fell's lifeless body hit the ground." The surprise which Katherine tried to conceal was admirable, but Derek saw the minute widening of her eyes. The female vampires body language suddenly changed before she walked up so that she was standing directly in front of the Original hybrid. Derek tensed up, prepared to protect himself against Katherine should he have to but in the back of his mind he knew that she wasn't going to attack him.

"Let me give you some advice. Klaus Mikaelson doesn't care for anyone. Klaus only uses them and if you think that you're any different and that he cares about you then you're wrong. The man killed you so that you became a hybrid so think on that idea."

"Let me guess, you talked to Stefan?" A calculating look assessed Derek as Katherine was obviously trying to figure him out and what exactly his angle was. "Do you have any idea as to where the group went? My phone died which makes it hard to keep in contact with Original hybrids." Katherine seemed to be confused about the fact that the other hybrid was not as concerned about the only other hybrid's whereabouts. "Klaus isn't keeping you on a leash?" Derek laughed at hearing the question which she asked, the man could try and keep him on a leash, but it would end badly for the other man.

"I'll find them myself don't worry about it Katherine." Katherine seemed shocked that he knew her name and that he was not afraid of her. "The group of them were at Gloria's earlier but then they went off somewhere else. There's no telling where they are now." As Derek began to walk away Katherine called out to him, getting his attention.

"Whatever hell that you have been through Klaus is worse. You should get away while you still can. Before you're in too deep. Trust me on this." Derek was still walking away when he turned around and faced her giving her a calculating look. "Klaus didn't kill me Katherine. He saved me." With this statement he turned back around and started to make his way towards Gloria's bar thinking that he would just simply wait for the group because they would eventually come back.

"Do I get your name?!" Derek smirked before turning around to face her.

"You'll have to earn it."

Gloria's Bar

"Gloria! Are you here?!"

"Yeah I'm in the back Derek. Come on back here and the rest of the group should be here pretty soon." Derek felt an unease but allowed it to pass as he took in his surroundings when he entered the back room and immediately regretted having ignored that feeling. Just as he was about to turn around and leave Derek felt as if his entire body had been turned to stone. There was no response from any of his limbs and each time that he tried to move them it sent a shock of pain through his body, the pain radiating universally throughout. Derek immediately knew what the spell was because of the pain, recognizing it as an older form of an immobilization spell which was not uncommon to older witches. When Gloria entered the room, Derek gave the woman a glare which would have killed anyone else.

"Derek do you remember when I first met you?" Derek refused to answer the witch knowing that she was going to go ahead and finish the question and answer it for him. "When I first met you as a child, during that very first month when you had just been dropped off with Damon. When the man's emotions were still off, and he was still continuing on with his search for Katherine yet again. The two of you had been in New York and he had even brought you to Chicago with him." Derek's eyes narrowed even more as Gloria began to talk of his father and how Damon had tried to keep his emotions turned off when he had first come into his father's care.

"The man's emotions were turned off but still he protected you as if you had been his natural born son. The man had possessed no emotions that he would even acknowledge but he had begun to care because of you the great however many grandson. The lack of Damon's feelings though made me nervous because of the fact that I figured along with most everyone else the the would never stop looking for Katherine. Or that whenever he inevitably failed yet again that he would spiral downward taking you with him." Derek felt an unease as the witch continued to talk about when she had first met him. There was a memory of when he had first met Stefan which continued to fight to get to the forefront of his mind.

"The action which I made was to call Stefan Salvatore as much as I hated the fact that Stefan was a ripper he would know how to deal with you better than Talia Hale possibly could when she left you with a vampire who had his emotions turned off." Gloria sighed loudly after saying this, the memory obviously annoying her because f how she had failed in being unable to get Derek away from Damon. The fact that the woman had failed in separating a vampire from the werewolf pup which had been left in his charge made Derek smirk.

"I bet that the fact that you were unable to separate Damon from what he saw as his responsibility a werewolf pup really unnerved you." Gloria seemed to be ignoring him but Derek knew that she was more than likely just pretending that he had not insulted her lack of ability.

"But Stefan made the mistake of thinking that Damon would give up a child to an uncertain future which could possibly end in abuse. Because even when Damon was at his worst he could never stand to see a child suffer under another person's hand. Which was more than likely because of his childhood with Giuseppe." Gloria finally looked to Derek after having been studying her grimoire the expression upon her face having something that almost looked like regret in her eyes, but it quickly vanished. "If you think the fact that Damon was abused as a child is a surprise to me then you have another thing coming because my father has always been very open to me about the past."

"Your father is an unpredictable man at the very best of times and when I had heard from my brother about Talia leaving her child with Damon Salvatore. The thought of a werewolf being raised by an abomination such as a vampire was something which had much of the supernatural community up in arms." Derek felt rage upon hearing that Gloria had been responsible for one of the worse fights which he had seen between the Salvatore brothers and he remembered that day very vividly because of how the hatred for Stefan had been absolute for the longest time.

 _Flashback_

 _When Derek had heard the door open and he had noticed an unfamiliar scent he had been curious, and he had snuck out to see just who it was who was visiting Damon. Damon had insisted upon him calling him that and that he was not in any way his father, but Derek could tell that he didn't completely hate him. The fact that the man had gotten him a leather jacket the other day spoke volumes to just how much Damon did not hate him, along with how he had taken him out on the full moon. The man who had entered the apartment was also a vampire which Derek could immediately tell because of how he held himself and even spoke with an older air like Damon but much more serious._

 _"_ _Where is the child Damon?"_

 _"_ _Wow Stef. It took you less than thirty seconds to ask about the kid who has a name which is Derek?" Derek smirked upon hearing this because it revealed how Damon cared about him even more than he was trying to let Derek know._

 _"_ _You have no emotions to speak of Damon, you shouldn't be raising a child! You could suck him dry!" Derek's tiny fingers wrapped themselves around the doorframe of the door which he had been hiding behind angry at how this person was speaking about Damon. Damon would never do that to him! Derek's claws had unconsciously begun to make themselves known and they were currently digging themselves into the wooden frame leaving little claw marks in the wood of the doorframe which caught Damon's attention. Damon though never looked away from his brother as he made a motion with his hand which had Derek looking down at his hands and retracting his claws by calming himself down by gaining control which Damon had been teaching him._

 _"_ _Even with my emotions off I would never harm a child. Besides, the point Talia Hale entrusted him to me! Not you Stefan because even in your most controlled moments you are constantly about to fall over the edge. Derek is related to me by blood and you would be a constant danger to him because of the tenuous control which you have on your own bloodlust. You're one blood bag away from becoming a ripper! If anyone is a danger to Derek, then it would be you!"_

 _"_ _Just hand him over Damon! The kid needs to be raised by werewolves and not by a vampire who is constantly turning his emotions off!" Stefan yelled as he tried to drown out the protests which Damon was yelling at his younger brother. Derek had finally had enough upon hearing that Stefan was going to try and take him away from Damon. Werewolves had given him up, his family who was supposed to love him gave him up so the last thing that he wanted to do was to go and live with another stupid werewolf pack. The five-year old was angry that this person was going to try and take him away from Damon who had done nothing but protect him. Damon was the first person who had stood up for him since he had killed that hunter and his eye color had changed._

 _"_ _NO! You stay away from Damon!" Derek yelled as he ran to grab Damon's leg, standing next to him and gave Stefan the best glare that he could. A glare which for a five-year old was pretty impressive._

 _"_ _I don't want to go with you! I want to stay with Damon! You're just going to drop me off with some stupid werewolf pack!"_

Gloria's Bar

"You're the reason that Stefan tried to take me away from Damon?!"

"Stefan was supposed to deal with it. He would have given you to a werewolf pack that would have hidden you away like Damon should have done." Derek was beginning to become nervous as he watched Gloria who was mixing together herbs and other different concoctions which made his nose burn. "No werewolf pack would have taken me because practically every single one of them rejected me because of what I did." Derek was trying to keep Gloria talking so that he could avoid whatever monstrosity that she was about to try and use on him.

"With good reason though Derek. You were a child who murdered someone. The fact that you might possibly begin to relish in the idea of killing other people was in the forefront of everyone's minds. As a witch I desire balance above all else and you have yet again destroyed this balance by becoming one of the only two Original hybrids in all of existence." Gloria suddenly made a motion with her hand and frowned upon seeing Derek's lack of reaction to whatever spell she was trying to use on him.

"You're going to have to do better than that because Augustine didn't just use human methods to experiment on me." Gloria smirked upon hearing the statement and then made another motion which had Derek seeing nothing but darkness around him as Gloria knocked him out.

Warehouse

"Where is Derek? Shouldn't he have been back by now?" Klaus swallowed the last bit of blood from what was now a corpse who had been living and breathing not a moment before. "He mentioned earlier about getting another coffee. But he did have a look upon his face that made it look as if he was going to go out and murder someone." Stefan went from being somewhat concerned to completely panic stricken. "You mean that you let him go out on a possible murder spree?!" Klaus rolled his eyes and then gave Stefan a pointed look.

"No offense but despite you being 140 years give or take your nephew has more control than you ever had as a vampire Stefan. The very fact that you never had any impulse control was the reason why I did not bring you along with Rebekah and myself." Stefan frowned and then stood up heading straight for the door. "Fine. But I need to go and do something else before I go to the nearest Starbucks and see if he is there consuming his usual inhuman amounts of caffeine." Klaus smirked at the mention of Derek's consumption of caffeine. The fact that he was more worried about the Original hybrid was hilarious in itself because of how his nephew was practically indestructible now. The state of the other man was concerning though Klaus thought to himself as he watched Stefan walk out the warehouse door.

Gloria's Bar

When Derek woke up he found himself chained down to a table which was surrounded by candles and the first thing which came out of his mouth was the first thing that he thought of.

"What the fuck Gloria?!" The older witch suddenly appeared with a serious look on her face as she took in Derek and how he was splayed on the table after she had place instruments which made him extremely nervous as he saw that each and every one had a sharp point. Gloria then approached Derek and she pulled on the restraints which were keeping him down and tightened them even more, the leather creaking as it was tightened even more so.

"Unfortunately for you Derek you got here before your uncle did. And I truly am sorry that I'm going to have to use you to get what I want." Derek's gaze hardened even more so upon hearing this. The fact that he was trying his best to keep calm and to not freak out because of how he was tied down much like he had been in Augustine was making this extremely difficult. "Then let me go. Nothing is stopping you, and if you let me go right now then maybe I won't rip off your head." Gloria smirked as she approached Derek and he couldn't help but to feel concerned because of how Gloria was holding the knife which he knew was going to be cutting into him.

"As much as I would love to let you go there is no possibility of that because of how I need you as leverage against your uncle." Gloria was now touching his wrist and looking at the veins which were blue and that seemed to stick out more so than usual as Derek watched the witch investigating them. "Listen that knife doesn't look very sanitary, so I would prefer that you not cut into me with that walking health hazard." Gloria smirked upon hearing this from Derek who was eying the knife rather than looking to Gloria who was watching him with rapt attention because of how he was reacting to the knife. "Only Damon's son would say such a glib comment. But let me tell you that it will not get you out of this. You won't be able to see straight after this and it's going to bring up that pesky PTSD that you seem to want to hide from everyone." Derek who had been biting into his lip which was now beginning to bleed because of his teeth which had shifted spat out the saliva mixed with blood onto Gloria's feet.

"Fuck you. You will not get to hear me beg. I've seen much worse than you. I've lived through a literal Hell." Gloria smirked upon hearing this from Derek while positioning the knife above his left wrist Derek felt his blood run cold. Hundreds and thousands of images began to flash through Derek's mind as the knife drew closer and closer towards his left wrist, Augustine coming to the forefront of his mind the knife's edge drawing closer and closer down to where Gloria was going to cut him open. The reminder of the constant pain of being repeatedly cut into by the so-called doctors and scientists that had all been in search of improving on humanity. When Gloria finally reached Derek's left wrist and cut through the layers of his own skin as easy as a hot knife would through butter, the blood running down both sides of his left wrist. Gloria was holding the cut wide open so that the veins and the tendons inside of his wrist were laid bare as she placed a rod which had some kind of symbol on the medallion which hung from the top of it. Derek felt the images began to slow with more focus placed upon each and every one while he tried his best to ignore the past which he had escaped less than a few months ago.

"I hope that you enjoy your nightmares Derek. I truly am sorry that it had to come to this because if you had come later then I would not have been forced to use you." Derek was oblivious to everything that Gloria had been saying because of the constant flash of images which continued in its effort to consume him. As Gloria placed the other rod in Derek's left wrist she frowned upon realizing that the youngest Salvatore had yet to yell out in agony. "The horror that you went through took something away from you Derek which I am sorry for." Derek through the constant flash of torture and pain which was flashing through his mind thought that he heard something, but the pain and the torture was too overwhelming, too strong for him to break the spell which was forcing him to relive everything he had been trying for months to put behind him. The physical pain which Derek had gone through in Augustine had been terrible so having to relive through the pain was excruciating. Not even because of the pain but because of the emotional torment and the humiliation along with the hunger which he had gone through. The images still continued to flash through his mind with no visible end in sight and Derek just wanted unconsciousness to take over him but whatever Gloria had done obviously made it so that this was not going to be a possibility. One of the main flashbacks which was going on a continuous loop was the first time that the members of Augustine had experimented on him. Out of all of the memories which were flashing through his mind Derek focused on this one because the last thing he wanted was Gloria knowing some of the worse things that he had done.

 _May 2008_

 _Derek felt as if he was slowly dying which he supposed was true because of how long he had been without any food. The men which had imprisoned him had been giving him vampire blood twice a day and Derek had grown incredibly tired of drinking vampire blood twice a day for two weeks. Every second that trickled by made him think as if his stomach was going to start eating itself because of the lack of anything solid for two weeks. The hunger which had originally been there after the first three days had turned into a throbbing pain. This throbbing pain had then turned into a constant stabbing which the vampire blood got rid of for maybe an hour after being consumed. Derek knew that they were probably performing some type of experiment because he doubted that they would be giving the vampires blood from other vampires. The pain in his head was nearly as bad as his stomach. The pain would go in and out, but with the constant pain from his stomach it would bring the headache which he would try and ignore only to be reminded of the pain in his head. And his body felt as if it was going to blow away at any moment if he wasn't too careful. Originally Derek had tried to remain active but after it had been a week the extra motion made the werewolf metabolism speed up and consume any of the calories or even nutrition from the vampire blood to get consumed faster. Derek had taken to observing everything about the cell which he had been placed in and had seen the D.S. which had been drawn into the rockface and had felt a chill upon reading the letters. Knowing the writing and knowing that his father had been on the outs with Stefan during the fifties it wasn't very hard to make the connection. Along with the fact that the Augustine people had practically bragged about the cell which he was in._

 _Hearing the sound of the cell door opening Derek made no effort towards movement. Knowing that the person would either come and shove the blood down his throat or leave him alone once he realized that there would be no movement from him. The last thing that he expected though was for two men to pick him up. Derek opened his eyes to see that the cell door was wide open and that there was another doctor standing at the entrance. Derek's lips pulled back as he snarled at the man who was standing in the open doors of the cell. Doctor Grayson Gilbert. The man who had been the constant thorn in his side since the man had become his own personal hell. It had been two weeks since he had kidnapped him. Derek had been hearing the constant screams and begging of vampires and other supernatural creatures the entirety of his stay. Derek knew that his father was going to be going crazy looking for him so this is what gave him hope that he would be rescued from this place but that didn't mean that he was not going to try and escape himself._

 _Derek let out another snarl as the two men approached him and stopped on either side of him not wanting them to come anywhere near him. The two men actually stopped, and Derek was more than a little surprised because of how these men were always more than willing to use force when dealing with him. Hearing the approaching footsteps Derek tried to lift his head up but barely managed to lift it up off the ground a few inches before he allowed it to drop back to the ground. When he heard the shifting of clothing he looked to see Grayson Gilbert who was now crouched down but unfortunately, he was far enough away that Derek would not be able to make a last attempt to rip the man's throat out._

 _"_ _Evidently a werewolf cannot survive off of vampire blood alone which is more than a little disappointing because now we will have to deal with giving you food once a day." Derek's stomach clenched in pain and he felt as if he was going to scream out at the mention of food but there was no way that he was going to give Grayson Gilbert the satisfaction. "Bring him with us." Derek felt more than a little bit terrified because of how there this action had never been before but Derek had not the energy to ask where exactly he was being taken but he took in the environment around him so that if he had the chance to escape that he would be able to remember where exactly he was. When Derek saw the metal door at the end of the hallway he his heart quickened, and he felt his lack of strength even more so because of how he was unable to escape from the two men he could have easily beaten just the other day._

 _The large metal door looked like a door which belonged in a morgue which made Derek's blood run cold because the last thing that he wanted to do was to go through that door, but he was being dragged directly into what looked like a horror movie. "That door is laced with vervain and other herbs to keep supernatural creatures from getting out so don't even think of trying to escape. The terror which Derek had become even more so pronounced because of how these people were probably going to do the same exact thing that they had been doing to the vampires for days. The screaming and the moaning of the vampires and other supernatural creatures had been haunting his dreams for the past two weeks, the scent of blood and other bodily fluids sticking in his nose._

 _"_ _Lay him down on the table." Derek weakly turned his head and upon seeing the cold metal table in the center of the room he felt his blood run cold. Derek knew exactly what that table was going to be for, there was a moment when everyone seemed to pause and then then Derek tried to lash out trying to bite the man next to him, but this only resulted in the men shoving him down to the ground because of his lack of strength or power. Derek while his head was being shoved into the ground smelt the sharp tang of copper which had been left behind by the vampires who had obviously been cut into and tortured, but Derek was scared to know what was going to happen next. Derek felt himself being pulled up off of the ground the scent of blood still heavy in his nose despite not having his face still being shoved into the floor. The floor which was a clinical white like something out of a horror movie because of the drain which was there so that blood could be washed away so that these so-called doctors could wash their hands of what they had done. Derek weakly managed to turn his head so that he could look to the metal table which was in the room and as much as he wanted to fight against these people there was nothing that he could do because he had used what strength that he had left earlier. Derek felt as if his heart was going to come out of his chest because of how hard it was beating. These people were going to do whatever they wanted to do to him because there was no way that he would be able to fight back against them. Derek's body was still tense though because there was no way that he was prepared for whatever they were about to do to him. There was no amount of preparation in life that would have prepared him for this._

 _Derek felt more than a little useless as he watched his arms and legs were strapped down to the table, the chill which had entered his blood was becoming more pronounced. No matter how childish it sounded Derek wanted his father right now, the man would always come for him, but he truly wanted no one else other than his father right now. This was the main thought as he watched Grayson Gilbert pick up a scalpel which was more than sharp enough to cut through his skin._

 _"_ _You know. We looked inside of your wallet at your ID before we removed everything which could possibly be used as a weapon inside. We were extremely surprised to find that we have another Salvatore in the Augustine halls." Derek felt as if his eyes were going to come out of his head, he hid the surprise though as best as he could trying his best to come up with an answer to Grayson Gilbert's comment._

 _"_ _If you think that I didn't know that there was a Salvatore which lived in these halls then you're incredibly ignorant. Where exactly are these halls anyway?" Derek smirked as he said the jibe at Grayson Gilbert hoping the man would rise to the occasion. The frown which was on Grayson's face revealed that the man had been hoping for a more fearful response. "Yes. Your father was a guest in these halls for five years from 1953-1958. You're actually residing in the very same cell which he lived in, we thought that it would be poetic." Derek wanted to vomit upon hearing the statement because of how long his father was held captive by these monsters. "Your father was one of the most combative patients that we had." Derek scoffed upon hearing what Grayson had said because he had talked about his father, the man that he had captured a patient as if he had been a willing participant in everything which was going on around here._

 _Derek was about to respond with a variation of fuck you when he saw something which stopped any words which were going to come out of his mouth. What had stopped the future insults which were going to come from Derek was the object which he saw. Derek saw the scalpel which the so-called Doctor had picked up of the medical tray earlier from the corner of his eye. The tool, because that scalpel could only be described as such. As a tool, something to be wielded and to be used for the so-called Doctor Grayson's own gain._

 _Derek's thoughts had been wild only moments before. They had been running in eery direction but now every thought had been stopped in their tracks. His father had been under Augustine's blade before. He had left without any kind of sign that he was going to be leaving and there had been no message for his father. His father would know. Damon knew that his son would not disappear without giving him a reason as to why. He prayed to everything that his father would find him swiftly. Because he knew that he would escape but the question was as to when he would exactly escape. Derek knew that he would be under the scalpel at least once, and he knew that these men would take no small amount of pleasure in cutting and taking him apart piece by piece. His healing powers rivalled even a vampire's and unlike many other breeds of werewolves his organs, eyes, and even his limbs would grow back even if wolfsbane was in his system which would just slow down the healing process immensely and make it much more painful. Luckily Derek had no need to worry about the wolfsbane which they were using currently because the strain which they were using had more of an effect on another breed of werewolves. Derek probably could have escaped if not for the fact that he hadn't eaten in nearly two weeks apart from the vampire blood which they had been giving him._

 _The feeling of Grayson sliding the scalpel steadily through his flesh immediately brought Derek from the thoughts of his possible escape. The scalpel felt iron hot against his skin which was clammy and cold. The scalpel brought immediate tears to his eyes because of the pain, and oh how he wanted to scream. If only for the reason that when you are in pain the sometimes the only thing that you can do is scream, not because it will do anything but because there is at least one thing. That scream. That one thing which can distract you from the pain even if only for a moment._

 _When Grayson walked away Derek let out a small sigh, one that hopefully none of the doctor's would have been able to see. Having even the smallest amount of a weakness in front of any of these men would have not been just a blow to Derek's ego, but would make these men and women think that he was easily broken. And Derek was nothing if not resilient, and he was a Salvatore. Salvatore's were survivors._

 _When Grayson returned with a different scalpel, one that was not covered in blood he tried not to lick the blood which covered his chin from when he had bitten into his lip from earlier. The action would have been seen as him being nervous and while he had no small amount of nervous energy, the last thing he wanted was for these doctors to know it. Derek felt as if the world stopped upon realizing what was different about the scalpel which Grayson had returned with. Wolfsbane. The tool in Grayson's hand was coated with wolfsbane. The only thing that Derek could hope for was that it was going to be one of the more useless strains which the doctors had been using. The strains which affected another breed more acutely than his own breed. The fact that they made healing a bitch and still had the ability to weaken him was an annoyance but still infinitely better than the one's which made more of a scratch on his type of werewolf._

 _Derek's hopes were brought to life when Grayson began to cut into him once more and he realized immediately what the man was hoping to do with the wolfsbane. The man was hoping to keep him from healing as fast so that he could look around inside of his chest. Derek's nerves began to shoot through the roof and the desire for his father to burst into the room to save him. Increasing as Grayson used some kind of medical device to keep his chest open to his own perusal, his gaze stopping on the werewolf's heart. Derek was fighting against the restraints even though he knew that there was no possibility of an escape with them being laced with wolfsbane and his own current lack of strength._

 _Every movement stopped when Grayson reached into his chest, wrapping his cold sterile hand around Derek's beating heart. The cold seemed to pierce through his heart even though Derek knew that it was improbable. The man held his literal heart in his hand and Derek knew that the man held his life._

 _"_ _Tell me now. If I remove your heart will you die?" Derek paused for a moment and then met Grayson's gaze. Allowing every bit of his anger and rage to show in that moment that he met the so-called doctor's cold lifeless eyes._

 _"_ _Yes."_

 _"_ _So much more to test then."_

 _Derek let out a scream as the man broke his entire left rib cage, rib by rib. The breaking of bone resounding through the air, accompanied by the sporadic screams of Derek who was just trying to ride out the pain which seemed to never end. And just when Derek thought that the end of the nightmare then it started all over again, and Derek started to scream all over again._

 **Gloria's Bar**

"I thought that you were resting." Stefan said as he entered Gloria's bar, taking in how there was the faint smell of herbs and smoke drifting around. "Well now we both have a secret." Gloria continued to move the bottles of alcohol around acting as if she had not just been called out by the younger Salvatore. "What did you see?"

"It's more about what I heard and then later deduced that is more important. The very same girls that I saw in the vision were mentioning you. And the other important thing that I figured out was that there was something even more important than these girls. That you're keeping whatever it is that you know from your little nephew Derek a well." Stefan felt at a loss for words upon hearing the new shred of information and began to try and distract Gloria from her search into his mind.

"Yet you didn't tell Klaus. Why?"

"I don't work for that little half-breed."

"I would hate to have to tell Klaus what a little liar his best friend is." Stefan heard none of this as he zoned in on the sound of another heartbeat in the bar. As soon as Stefan homed in on the heartbeat of the person he knew exactly who it was. His nephew. It instantly made his blood run cold when he realized that he had no idea as to how long Derek had been victim to Gloria. Stefan turned around slowly and tried to attack Gloria but then felt the pain from a spell which immediately made his brain feel as if it was being pulled into a million different directions.

"I guess that I'll have to get the information out of you the hard way. And that may or may not include your nephew who you noticed is currently in the back room. He's not having a very good time right now." Gloria smirked as she watched Stefan fall to the floor, the vampire still fighting to keep the witch from being able to have access to his mind. Eventually losing the fight which brought a smirk to the witch's face which was more than slightly sinister in the dark light of the bar was Stefan's thought as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"I'm not going to tell you anything." These words were barely audible as Stefan spoke them the words slightly slurring together so that they came out mumbled but the female seemed to get the gist of what was being said. Looking over her shoulder to where Derek was located she smiled.

"That boy back there has been through hell which gave him personal lessons in keeping quiet. You'll be begging to tell me what I want to know by the time I'm done with you." Stefan knew that what Gloria had said should have been a huge red flag, but he couldn't even keep his eyes open, much less figure out what exactly Gloria meant.

 **Later…**

Upon regaining consciousness Stefan noticed that the heartbeat which had turned out to be his nephew's was now much closer. After a couple tries Stefan managed to open his eyes and felt an immediate concern upon seeing the sight of his nephew who was laying impossibly still. The lack of movement was much more concerning because of how he had yet to see Derek truly sleep practically the entire time that Derek and joined up with Klaus and him. The only thing which managed to calm him down somewhat was the slight movement of Derek's chest which let him know that Derek was still breathing. Which brought his thoughts back to the question as to when Gloria had managed to procure Derek because even before his nephew had been a hybrid Damon had made sure that he was a force to be reckoned with. The sound of movement brought Stefan's attention back over to a door which Gloria had just walked through and was steadily making her way over to Derek and him. The immediate response was to struggle but there was no response from his limbs when he tried to move them and he immediately asked Gloria as to what she had done.

"Relax honey. It's just a little paralysis spell. I haven't done anything major like the witchy voodoo I was forced to use on Derek, he managed to withstand the first spell I tried to use to knock him out." Stefan laughed sardonically upon hearing the words knock out.

"Yeah. Knock out, is that what you call the fucking lobotomy that you witches use on vampires and werewolves?" Gloria merely shrugged upon hearing the comment which came from Stefan. "Say whatever you like Stefan. All that I want to do is get all of that information out of your pretty little head." Stefan couldn't help but watch as Gloria cut down his arms, inserting some kind of witch artifact inside of each wrist. Stefan watched with dread as Gloria coated her hands in some kind of oil which from the scent he recognized as vervain. The guttural scream which Stefan let out as Gloria practically dug her hands into his chest pierced the air and seemed to drown out any other noises in the background.

"Go ahead and scream Stefan. I won't judge you."

 **Later…**

"I'm impressed by your devotion to try and fight Stefan, but it will only get you so far." Gloria smiled as she said this but then frowned as her control refused to break through into his mind. And she sighed upon realizing that she was going to have to use Derek as leverage which she had been hoping she wouldn't have to do. She looked down at Stefan once more with a look which reflected how much she had wished that he had just not been such a liar and had told her what she had wanted to know rather than to have to torture Derek. A man who was obviously suffering from major PTSD, but c'est la vie you do what you have to do to survive.

"You want to fight? We'll see how far your resolve goes." Gloria motioned with her hand and Stefan watched with horror as his nephew's body began to thrash and his back arched up so unnaturally that Stefan was surprised that his back hadn't broken. The tension which ran through his nephew's body continued to increase so much so that Stefan was waiting for his nephew's body to snap in half, wondering if an Original hybrid could heal from being ripped in two. Finally, when everything seemed to have come to a head the tension left Derek's body and he laid back down so that it had been as if nothing had ever happened and Stefan wanted to know what exactly Gloria was planning to do.

Stefan's blood ran cold as the scene began to play out. He watched on with dread as an incision appeared on Derek's body, the red incision drawn as if by an invisible hand. When Stefan thought that it couldn't get much worse he watched on with horror as his nephew's chest was opened up, his insides displayed for everyone to see. The scene before him was like something that would have come out of a horror film. And he was continuing to question if this was really happening or if Gloria was using some kind of spell to create an illusion to get him to give everything up. He couldn't allow himself to slip and give away anything that may reveal that Elena was alive. Because if he did then it would have made his self-destruction with Klaus practically worthless. Stefan even as he was thinking this was immediately brought back to the brutality of what was happening to his nephew.

"You're a monster! Stop this now!" Gloria smirked and then with a motion of her hand Derek began to thrash as if against invisible bindings. The witch leaning over Stefan so that she was right up next to her ear, the vampire feeling her breath right up against his ear. "You should now something extremely important as well as interesting. It may help in getting you to reveal that information which is locked up tight in that head of yours." Stefan tried to focus on what Gloria was saying rather than on the loud noise of the thrashing and pounding of Derek's body against the table next to him. "You should now that whatever is going on in his head, the things that are being transferred onto him out here. These things which are going on are all memories. Everything that happening is something which was done to him. The only thing that I'm doing is casting the spell. None of this is a fabrication, it's all a part of Derek's memories because nightmares don't work with this spell. Only memories. Horrible memories. But memories nonetheless."

Stefan's blood ran cold upon hearing this because Damon had been right about everything. This couldn't really be a memory of Derek's could it? There was no way that he had lived through this, Stefan hoped that this was all an illusion. What was being done to his nephew was both brutal and inhuman and only a monster would be even capable of doing, much less thinking of this. With a heavy heart he realized that he really should have helped Damon when he told him that Derek had went missing. Damon had been right about everything. Stefan had brushed Damon off because of how they had been distant for longer than he could remember but Stefan should have known that Damon only would have contacted him for something of the utmost importance. Stefan had been wrong, and Derek had paid for it.

The sound of bones breaking is what broke the tenuous resolve which Stefan had been managing to keep. "Stop this! Stop it now!" Gloria took the opportunity for what it was. An advantage. Gloria placed her hands on his chest and dug in, her nails piercing into his skin drawing blood due to the force. Stefan felt her ripping through his mind as she was searching for the information which she had been hoping to obtain. In the background Stefan heard the screams of his nephew before his own pain-filled screams began, the vervain along with the searing pain of Gloria ripping through his mind making it impossible to keep from screaming.

"There's the girl with the necklace. You love her. You'd do anything for her. And you have. A lot of darkness, a lot of guilt. All to keep her away from Klaus. And not even telling your nephew anything about her as well. The question is what is so special about this girl that you wouldn't even risk telling your nephew about her?" Stefan felt desperate as Gloria continued to get closer and closer to what exactly he had been trying to hide from her. Derek's screams were not helping because he realized that the more he resisted the more pain his nephew was in. The spell would increase its potency with each effort towards resisting Gloria's search in his mind.

"Don't do this. Please don't do this."

"She's the doppelgänger. She's supposed to be dead which is why you haven't told your nephew anything about her. And that's also why Klaus was so surprised that erek was turned into a hybrid, much less an Original hybrid. And that's why Klaus can't make them because of this girl." Gloria paused before going over to Derek and pulled out what she had placed into the hybrid's wrists earlier. The removal made it so that he began to steadily heal even if somewhat slower than he should have been healing. The witch frowned as she watched the hybrid heal, feeling as if Derek should not have gone through what he had been forced to endure at those monster's hands.

"You're lucky that it was Klaus that tried to turn Derek into a hybrid. If any vampire other than an Original or Klaus had tried to turn him, he would have died. Only Originals can turn people from Derek's line into hybrids. Otherwise they die. You're extremely lucky that Derek survived. Because Damon would have never forgiven you." The sound of a body dropping to the ground made Stefan turn his head and saw a very familiar form.

Katherine. The female vampire was standing over Derek and Stefan felt some concern for his nephew and then he saw her caressing Derek's face. Confusion was the first emotion which Stefan felt upon seeing the gesture because why would Katherine even possibly care for him in such a way? He saw her mouth move and was curious as to what she had said because she had spoken the words so softly that Stefan had no chance of hearing them. Stefan watched as Katherine released the restraints which were keeping Derek down on the table and watched as she seemed to take a particular care in making sure that he was properly cared for. Approaching Stefan Katherine released the restraints which had been keeping him down on the table and pulled out what Gloria had placed inside of his wrists so that he started healing up. "I've been thinking of your diabolical plan." Stefan who was putting his shirt back on looked to his nephew's body which was still immobile. "After what he went through he's going to remain unconscious long enough for us to have a good conversation."

"Oh. Do tell."

"Well, you must know that Klaus is to paranoid to every fully trust you. But the sister, she loves you like it was yesterday, so it obviously makes her the easier mark. You can't just pretend to care because Klaus will know. Even though he's obviously distracted by the delectable sight which is the hybrid laying over there. But you're trying to bond with him so that she feels left out, but it has been made harder by the fact that Derek doesn't ignore her. But the fact that you treat her like shit will make her want you more." Katherine watched with delight as she looked to Stefan and realized that this was exactly what he had been doing but didn't let it show on her face because there was such a thing as revealing too much information. She also knew Stefan too well and knew that he was going to try and cover up how worried he actually was that Katherine was able to discern his actual plan. And she tried not to smirk when Stefan played directly into exactly what she thought that he was going to do.

"So, you mean that I'm uh, I'm taking a page out of your book."

"The only question is what are you going to do about Derek and Klaus? Because as much as I thought that Klaus cared for nobody but himself there is the definite fact that he at least has affection for the hybrid over there. And I know that you want to keep Klaus away from Mystic Falls but what exactly do you expect to get from keeping him away from there? And besides you keep the other hybrid in the dark by not telling him about who exactly is in Mystic Falls." Stefan looked to his nephew once again checking to make sure that there wasn't a possibility that he was awake or even close to waking up. "It's funny how you think that I'm actually going to answer you."

"Oh, come on. We're beyond this. I saved both you and the attractive hybrid over there from Hilda the high voodoo priestess." Stefan looked to Katherine before revealing the fact that he had known the two Originals during the twenties about the fact that they had been running from something which had to be pretty fearsome to scare two Originals.

"There's a hunter which I heard stories about centuries ago. There could be some connection there. If you're planning to make a move against Klaus, then I want in."

"That's good. It's really good to want things Katherine."

"Stefan…" The sound of movement is what caused both Stefan and Katherine to turn and to face where his nephew had been laying down up until a moment ago quietly. Stefan stood there for a moment in shock before Katherine grabbed Derek's t-shirt which had been tossed on the ground by Gloria. The younger vampire watched with no small amount of interest as she approached Derek slowly making enough noise so that the hybrid knew that she was approaching. The event was almost like a person approaching a spooked animal but, in a way, Stefan figured that Derek was like that of a spooked animal. He had no idea as to what he was going to do about the fact that Derek had obviously been through hell and back. Looking to Katherine and the wrapped body of Gloria he looked to Katherine before picking up the body of the witch, and then handed her a piece of paper which had an address written down.

"When Derek calms down send him to the warehouse at this address. It's where the rest of us are. Klaus was not concerned at his lack of appearance the entire day, but he may begin to freak out when he still continues to not show up." Katherine nodded and then looked back to Derek who was sitting on the table which Gloria had strapped him down to. Katherine looked up to watch Stefan as he was walking through towards the back of the bar with the body of Gloria, scoffing at how Stefan was acting. Klaus was a mastermind and everyone who went up against him knew this and she knew that Stefan was going to find this out the hard way. And she knew that there was nothing that she was going to be able to do that would prevent this because she had been forced to learn this however many centuries ago. Hearing a noise behind her Katherine turned to see Derek who was doing his best to sit up, and she had to admit that she was impressed because of how thoroughly he had been put through the ringer by Gloria.

"Can you hand me my shirt or are you going to continue to stare?" Katherine smirked as she handed Derek his shirt taking in the tattoos which were present upon his body. "You know not many people would be coherent after what Gloria put you through." Derek made no effort towards a response which told the female vampire all that she needed to know. The hybrid was obviously shaken, and he was probably doing almost everything in his power to keep from breaking down right here and now. "You should probably take a minute to rest before rejoining Klaus and his merry little group." Derek actually scoffed upon hearing the advice which had come from Katherine who was now standing off to the side, watching as Derek continued to sit upon the table which Gloria had tortured him on. "I'm already tortured enough so what's a little more." Katherine chose not to say anything as she looked Derek over and hid behind the usual mask upon seeing that Derek's hands were shaking slightly. She didn't blame him though because if she had been forced to live through her own horrible memories she wasn't going to lie and say that she wouldn't be shaky as well. "I've been on the end of that particular spell before. It's not pleasant having to live through your own personal hell which consists of horrible memories." Derek actually looked at Katherine after this had been said, his face devoid of all emotion and she knew that it was because of how he was trying to not let her know just exactly how much Gloria had gotten to him.

"Do I finally get your name?" The attempt towards lightening the mood managed to actually do so. Derek let out a small laugh and looked to Katherine with a smirk on his face. "You don't need me to tell you my name. I know that you already know fully well exactly who I am. I doubt that you would have appeared in the alley if you had been unaware of who I am." Katherine took in Derek's tenuous control and then with a smirk she placed her hand so that he could take it. Derek looked at the hand as a person would look at a knife. The hand was just as lethal though and when Derek finally took the hand Katherine had no idea as to why she felt relief as she helped him to his feet. "Tell me what you know about me." Derek asked the question as he was pulling on his shirt much to Katherine's disappointment which brought a smirk to Derek's face as soon as he saw the pout on hers.

"I'm not revealing everything that I know about you."

"I would expect nothing less from the great Katherine Pierce. But you at least know my name, don't you?" The female vampire smirked before letting Derek know that she knew exactly who he was in the supernatural world. "So, you know who I am."

"I know exactly who you are. Your father asked me for help but let me believe that you were some other relative and not his son. I had no idea who exactly you were."

"Would you have looked for me if you had known that I was Derek's son?" Katherine nodded. "I would have looked for you. Maybe not as quickly because my efforts were spurred by Damon who convinced me that this was in some way a favor for Stefan. But I still would have looked for you. I do feel somewhat bad for letting Damon think that I was in a tomb for however long though because of how he was obviously searching for me to help you out." Derek had frowned upon hearing the first part of the sentence, but an actual smile came on his face upon hearing about how his father had been looking for him. "I'm glad that my father did not find out exactly where I was. It was a hell which I would not want him to have to relive." Katherine barely managed to keep the frown from her face upon hearing the particular line from Derek. Derek had obviously faced some hell, but to find out that his father had possibly faced the same exact hell was something interesting in itself. Katherine approached Derek and handed him the piece of paper which Stefan had written the address on earlier.

"I'll let your father know that you're doing alright. Derek." The hybrid actually smirked upon hearing his name come from Katherine's lips. Because he had known without a doubt that she would have found out everything about him before choosing to let her presence known in that alleyway.

Derek smiled at the female vampire before he made his way towards the entrance of Gloria's bar, an unusual feeling of relief at being able to return to Klaus.

"Derek!" The hybrid turned his head to look to Katherine who had called his name from across the bar. "Be careful." The female vampire vanished in the next moment and Derek remained there a moment before turning around to exit the bar. Letting it sink in that Katherine Pierce had appeared to be genuinely worried about him, but this was much harder to focus on while he was being practically consumed by the hell which Gloria had forced him to relive.

 **Warehouse**

When Derek entered the warehouse which Stefan had given him the address for he heard both his uncle and Rebekah talking about Klaus. Along with hearing the tail end of a statement where Rebekah was talking about how her and her brother had been on the run.

"No one is truly fearless Stefan. Not even Niklaus. And you Derek have had Nik actually worried. I haven't seen him worried for someone like he has been worried about you in quite some time." The revelation that the hybrid had been worried about him felt better than he realized it would. "I got tied up." Rebekah seemed to evaluate the honesty of what Derek had said before looking to Stefan once again. "Don't make me talk about this Stefan. Nik would not like that we were talking about this." Derek knew that Rebekah didn't notice the look of desperation from his uncle, but he knew the look very well. And he wanted to know why exactly his uncle was so desperate in his questioning of the female Original.

"He told me about the girl you loved. The one that died. He also told me that the only reason that you're with him is because of how you saved your brother. And he told me of how Derek was preventing the two of you from trying to create hybrids. And how Derek turned because of how he got in the way of a stake which would have certainly killed you."

"I was preventing Nik from killing werewolves because of his failure to create hybrids." Rebekah actually smiled upon hearing this, and Derek wondered if there was something else behind that smile. Before he could read too much into this Rebekah placed her attention back on Stefan, the smile disappearing. Derek was curious as well though about how the entire partnership had come to be. Because he knew about how his uncle had saved his father, but his father had mentioned nothing about a girl that Stefan had loved. "It's true. I did sacrifice myself for my brother and there was a girl that I loved." Rebekah told Stefan that Klaus admired how the members in their family seemed completely loyal to each other, that they always seemed to be ready to sacrifice themselves for each other. Derek was growing nervous though because there was something going on that he knew that he was unaware of. There was something which his uncle was hiding. This had been obvious to Derek the entire theme ever he had joined up with both Klaus and Stefan. Derek watched as Rebekah kissed his uncle and then watched sadly as Rebekah asked him if he could ever love anyone else. If he could love anyone like he had loved the girl from Mystic Falls and Derek immediately knew that there was something wrong as soon as his uncle answered Rebekah.

"I can always tell when you're lying Stefan." Just when Rebekah was turning around, obviously to face Derek Klaus entered the warehouse and began to talk about how Gloria was gone. Derek had no idea as to what was going on. Gloria had been gone when he had finally managed to calm down enough to not kill every person around Gloria's bar, but he had no idea as to where exactly she had gone. Derek figured that either Katherine or Stefan had managed to kill her, but he had no idea as to what had happened between when he was being tortured to when Katherine had finally managed to calm him down. Listening to the three other people in the room arguing about how exactly Stefan was not loyal to Klaus was causing Derek to understand exactly what Katherine had meant by be careful. The female vampire had not just meant for her to be careful around Klaus, but around his uncle. His very self-destructive uncle who tended to bite off much more than he could chew. The horrible aspect of the entire situation was that he had no idea as to what his uncle had been lying about the entire time. Stefan had lied to him consistently during his life the few times that he had been around. Stefan would lie when he thought that it would keep him from getting hurt or being involved in anything harmful. More often than not it would result in either Damon having to save Derek or with Derek getting hurt in some way and he knew that this situation was going to be the exact same way.

Taking in the entire atmosphere of the room he knew what exactly was going to happen, and it made him nervous. Trying to deal with both the literal hell which Gloria had brought upon him and keeping himself from ripping into the nearest warm body because of the damage done was made much harder by this. Klaus and Rebekah obviously knew something about Stefan that Derek didn't and it was causing the desire to feed upon the nearest warm body to become practically overwhelming. Dealing with the hunger and the PTSD had become almost second nature but when Gloria brought the PTSD to the front of his brain dealing with three things at once was overwhelming and he could feel himself practically shaking from the nervous energy which the other three immortal beings in the room were causing.

When Klaus broke his uncle's neck Derek was not in the least bit surprised. Because his uncle had obviously been lying to Klaus this entire time, and Derek knew that Klaus had been allowing the lies until they had begun to affect him. Looking to both Rebekah and Klaus and realizing that he had the full attention of two Originals made him realize just exactly how much his uncle must have fucked everything up. Klaus was going to get to the bottom of everything that had been going on, and Derek only wished that he knew what his uncle had been protecting.

"Your uncle has been lying this entire time and I'm going to ask you one time if you had any idea as to what he was lying about. You obviously knew that he was lying because he is a horrible liar. But I want to know if you knew that he was lying about Elena Gilbert, the girl he is in love with, being alive." Derek felt nothing but confusion upon hearing the name but the confusion turned into an overwhelming rage upon realizing just exactly what the girl's last name was. Gilbert. Derek knew that the older hybrid was waiting for Derek to prove that trusting him had been the wrong idea. The anger though of finding out that the girl that his uncle was in love with was a Gilbert was very quickly taking over any other thoughts which had been going through his head. A steadily increasing rage which increased as he realized that a Gilbert was taking advantage of not just himself albeit unknowingly and Klaus as well. Derek had already been angry because of how a Gilbert was yet again pulling the strings. An anger which increased as he realized how many people had to have taken advantage of Klaus to have him react like this. His uncle's actions which were not insignificant.

When Klaus appeared in front of Derek he realized that he had been caught up in his own thoughts at how he was going to figure out what exactly to do about the female Gilbert. "DID YOU KNOW?!" Derek with a calm which that hid none of the rage which Derek felt unnerved the female Original who had been watching what was going on from the sidelines. The two Original hybrids were looking to each other. Klaus obviously waiting for Derek to talk about how he had lied to him because Stefan was family, and Derek trying not to lash out and destroy everything around him. Derek drew in a breath slowly before looking to Klaus.

"If I had known that my uncle was lying about a Gilbert being alive. Then. I. Would. Have. Killed. Them." Klaus and Rebekah were both shocked upon hearing the anger which rang out with each word that Derek said to the two. "My uncle may be a liar but I'm not. So listen to me when I tell you that I would have killed her before helping out all of the werewolf packs. I would have made the special trip to wherever she was, even if it had been all the way across the world." Klaus' eyes narrowed upon hearing this and Derek knew that Klaus had believed him but he had been betrayed so many times by so many people that he was having a hard time believing him. Derek knew that putting faith in someone was like giving them a gun, they could choose to shoot you at any time with yourself being defenseless.

"And why should I believe you? I believe that you're not lying but your uncle lied to me all summer. And just because you're not lying now doesn't mean that you haven't been lying while you've been with me. You could just be an incredibly good liar. And you were gone an incredibly long time earlier. " Derek drew in a deep breath because he knew that there was no other way than to tell him exactly why he would not have lied about Elena had he known.

"I was gone earlier because I went to kill a man." The expression which Klaus had upon hearing this showed that the man obviously thought that he was joking yet again.

"If you think that I'm joking I'll show you his body later. I saw Arthur Fell and I murdered him as slowly and as painfully as I possibly could. I would have started with Grayson Gilbert, but the man died before I could manage to get to him. There is no way that I would have kept a Gilbert who was still alive and kicking because any Gilbert that is still breathing is one too many."

"Why should the fact that you hate Gilbert's so much give me reason to believe that you would never conceal a Gilbert I had a hand in killing. Especially if the Gilbert was someone that your uncle loved."

"Because Grayson Gilbert along with multiple other so-called doctors helped torture, cut into, and experiment on me for two years. If I had found out about Elena Gilbert before you then she would have been dealt with." Derek waited for Klaus to call him a liar. Or for Rebekah to come and break his neck, what he wasn't expecting was for Klaus to draw even closer to him.

"Where were you for two years." Klaus' voice shook with the anger which was threatening to break free.

"I was in Augustine. My number is 001A and I was subject to experimentation every day for two years, while I was forced to live in the very cell which my father was kept in back during the fifties. I have PTSD from being cut into daily for two years until I escaped." Neither Klaus or Rebekah said anything after hearing this. The shock evident in the room. Derek remained there motionless until Klaus approached Derek and despite everything that had happened Derek found himself shocked that he didn't flinch when Klaus grabbed the back of his neck. When Klaus placed his forehead against Derek's he felt a calm which he had not felt since they had been in the boutique this morning. Whatever Klaus was to anyone else mattered nothing to him. Because whenever Klaus and he were close then he felt complete and the voices caused by Augustine were quiet. Derek would do anything short of killing his father to remain close to one of the two people in the world who could silence those voices.

 **Salvatore Boarding House**

"Elena is getting on my last nerve."

"How exactly is Derek related to you anyway?" Damon looked to Alaric who was pressed up against him, the heat from the other man's body making it so that he had to repeat the question for Damon. Damon actually paused for a moment, taking a sip of the bourbon which was in his hand. "Random, first of all. But Derek is my great however many grandson. So, in a way he is my actual son."

"There was a woman years ago when I was still human that I was in love with and she ended up getting pregnant. I wanted to marry her but then my father in all of his wisdom prevented the marriage. By telling me that if I tried to elope with her then he would send Stefan off to war. So, I took Stefan's place. When I returned she had been sent off because someone had agreed to marry her. And it wasn't until years later that I had learned of how she had evidently been pregnant with my son. I found out that his name was Nikolas Salvatore Hale." Alaric leaned over so that he was as close as possible to Damon. "Look on the bright side, your son is going to be around for a long time." Damon smiled grimly upon hearing this.

"Derek has had a harder life than most. I remember though that just after he had been left with me that someone tried to take him away from me. Derek fought tooth and nail to remain with me which I am pretty sure was when my emotions began to leak back in. Because Derek had chosen me, and in my life, I have rarely been anyone's first choice. Derek was cast off by his own pack and the two of us relied upon each other and Derek became much more important in my life than I had originally foreseen. When I got the phone call from Derek earlier this summer I felt as if my entire world had finally started to turn again." Alaric smiled as he watched Damon finish talking about Derek who Alaric knew was more than a little bit similar to Damon from the short time that he had met him.

Just as Alaric was about to add to what Damon had said when the sound of the front door being opened which caused both men to move off of the couch. Alaric with a stake in his hand and Damon had set down his glass. When Elena walked through the door Damon calmed down and Alaric lowered the stake slightly.

"I'll accept a written apology."

"I don't have an apology, but I have information about Derek." The two men in the room groaned upon realizing that it was Katherine rather than Elena. "What do you want in return for the information about Derek?"

"I'm just looking for partners in crime. Feel like hitting the road? Getting the hell out of dodge?" Damon looked to Alaric before shrugging and grabbing his keys which were laying on the counter next to the door. When Alaric asked Katherine where exactly they were going all the female vampire turned around to look to him.

"We're going far away from here. But Damon wants to know about Derek and I'm not going to tell him until we get far enough away from Mystic Falls. Trust me. It'll be fun."

 **Mystic Falls**

When Stefan woke up he looked around and saw that he was in the back of a truck surrounded by familiar coffins. When he finally looked to Klaus he felt a sense of dread which he couldn't help but to feel nervous because Klaus more than likely knew about Elena.

"Just give me a chance to explain myself, okay?"

"No need. I'm not mad but merely curious. The real person who you should be concerned about is your nephew. You're very much in his bad graces right now. Back to the point though. Rebekah is the one who figured out the entire Elena Gilbert aspect. Because the only reason that you would have been asking and trying and failing to discreetly interrogate her would have been if you were trying to protect something. Something from your old life. And because of the fact that her instincts are flawless, almost borderline supernatural she figured out in Chicago that Elena Gilbert must not have been truly dead."

When Klaus opened the door of the truck Stefan had to squint because of the sudden light which flooded into the back. Wincing from the sudden light he at first didn't see the figure standing to the side of the truck, but when he did the look which was on his nephew's face was murderous. Stefan knew that look very well. He had seen the exact same look from first Damon and then from Derek later in life when the younger of the two picked up the look. Derek's eyes were narrowed, his green eyes seeming to cut through him causing Stefan to look down. Stefan had known that his nephew was going to be upset about the information which he concealed and about how he lied to him, but he hadn't thought that he was going to be this angry.

"Derek…"

"Klaus wanted to return back to Mystic Falls because he was curious, and I wanted to see my father. Don't expect me to help your little girlfriend." With this Derek walked away and before Stefan could even question as to where he might be going he felt two hands on the side of his head before everything turned black once again.


	6. I See Fire

Derek watched as Klaus broke his uncle's neck rolling his eyes as soon as he realized that the man was going to be at this all day long. Honestly Klaus could be such a child at times, but Derek wasn't one to judge because he had literally killed a man less than a day ago. What he really wanted now was some coffee and then to call his father and check in to see if he was at the boarding house. Derek turned around and grinned upon seeing the bored look which Rebekah had on her face and then realized that he was smiling at how she was bored because of his uncle's neck constantly being broken and rebroken. With a shrug he figured that Stefan deserved the literal pain in the neck for lying to him. Besides there was no way that Klaus was going to kill his uncle and he would prevent that if he tried. Because as angry as he was at Stefan he didn't want the man dead, as awful and judgmental as he could be the man was still family.

Glancing around Derek found the grill and then turned to get Rebekah's attention. "Hey Bex. You want to go look around some while Nik repeatedly breaks and rebreaks my uncle's neck?" The grin which Rebekah sent Derek's way made him happy that he had found a way to distract her because she had only been barely entertained in Chicago while buying a new wardrobe. "Anything to get rid of the sound of necks breaking." Derek smirked before pulling her arm into his and directed her towards the Grill, but before he could there was someone directly in front of him. Klaus.

Derek dropped Rebekah's arm and then crossed his arms so that he was mimicking Klaus' stance which caused Rebekah to laugh accordingly. "Where are you going?"

"I am going to get coffee because I have been without since our last stop at that gas station over three hours ago." When the Original hybrid rolled his eyes, Derek smirked and then a brilliant idea came into his head.

Derek drew closer to the hybrid and then grabbed the back of Klaus' neck so that their lips crashed together and Derek while Klaus' mouth was open shoved his tongue inside, searching the entirety of the wet cavern. Feeling Klaus harden against him was when he smirked and then pulled away from Klaus with a smirk on his face, pulling on Klaus' lip as he pulled away from the Original hybrid. A soft whine came from Klaus who looked at Derek as if he was going to pin him down right there and then take the other hybrid right then and there. "Tease." Derek smirked before grabbing Rebekah's hand once again and turned her in the direction of the Mystic Grill, a smile on his face because of how much he truly adored Klaus, and how the other hybrid seemed to like him just as much.

"I'm very surprised that my brother didn't just take you away right then and there. You know that you're playing with fire, right? Teasing him like that." Derek smirked as he held the Mystic Grill door open for her and then after she had walked through the door he walked through and allowed the door to close behind them. "It'll be good for him to realize that he should care more about making out with me than torturing people. If you look out that window, I'll bet you fifty bucks that he's looking over towards the Mystic Grill right now." Rebekah turned around and looked and couldn't hold back a laugh upon seeing that her brother was indeed looking towards the Mystic Grill. Derek smiled upon hearing her laughter because it made him happy to know that she was finally cheering up after being locked away for ninety years. Walking up and ordering a coffee he stood there a moment and watched as Rebekah took in everything and he wanted to laugh at how the small establishment seemed to bother the female Original. When the person behind the bar handed Derek the cup of coffee he after waiting for it to cool down took a sip and nearly moaned upon tasting the caffeine.

"You do know that there is a much better coffee shop around the corner, right?" Derek turned around quickly and looked to the brunette-haired man behind the bar. The man who was very obviously looking him up and down unabashedly. Derek smiled as he placed the coffee back down on the counter after finishing off the rest of what was in the cup, which Derek had to admit was a horrible cup of coffee. "As amazing as that sounds I know an even better place to have coffee which is where the two of us are going to go." The man looked almost disappointed upon hearing that Derek was not going to take him up on his obvious invitation. "You don't look like someone who refuses a good cup of coffee." Derek wanted to laugh upon hearing the question along with the man's obvious pass. If the guy knew that an Original hybrid that would more likely than not snap his neck for messing with Derek because of certain feelings, then he would have been running for the hills. "No. Thanks but there's someone who I think likes my attention well enough." The man upon hearing these words backed off and Derek was relieved because there were some people who never knew when to back off. "Understood man. But if you ever do find yourself needing any kind of company then you know where to find me." Derek sent a smirk the man's way before both Rebekah and him approached the door which they had entered through.

When the two of them reached the door, Rebekah stopped Derek with her hand which she placed upon Derek's chest. "Thank you." Derek was confused upon hearing the comment which came from the female Originals mouth. "For what?" Rebekah smiled for a minute as if there was some universal joke which Derek was not privy to. "For not playing with my brother's feelings. Many women and even men upon learning that my brother cared for them would continue on with no regard for his feelings. I thank you for not disregarding his feelings." Derek smiled as he listened to Rebekah talk about her older brother, the care which she obviously felt for Klaus evident in how she spoke. "It's not hard to care about your brother." Derek paused as when he felt Rebekah's hand being removed from his chest. "When I'm with your brother he makes me feel as if I am not as broken as I truly am. I feel calmer and the demons which threaten to constantly overtake me aren't as loud. The way that I feel about your brother is unique. I've never felt this way about anyone else." The smile on Rebekah's face threatened to blind Derek as the two of them walked out of the Mystic Grill. Derek rolled his eyes upon seeing the smile and laughed before pushing Rebekah away from him before motioning to his car.

"Where are we going?" Rebekah seemed to look nervously toward the truck where the two of them could still hear Klaus breaking his uncle's neck. "We are going to get a better cup of coffee and to check up on some things which have been left unattended since I was last in Mystic Falls. Derek finished sending off a text just as he said this, hoping to get a response before reaching their destination. Just before the two of them walked out the door Rebekah stopped Derek who was in the process of getting the door for her. "It's interesting in the way that my brother has a protectiveness about you. But not how it was in the past when it came to people he had an affection for. He allows you room to breathe. Just now he allowed you to go wherever you wanted and he didn't have the paranoia which he has had for years. He trusts you." Derek smiled as the two of them walked through the door, the smile not revealing the inner turmoil he also felt from a mention of having his freedom taken away. Again. Not from the idea that Klaus may take it away but that anyone else might. After Augustine one of the main fears which would probably always remain would be that lack of freedom and control which Augustine had taken away. "There's a trust between the two of us. It's so easy to trust him and I have no idea why." What Derek didn't say though as Rebekah and him approached his Camaro, sending Klaus a smirk before the two of them drove off was that it was terrifying. It was terrifying how easily the trust came. Because for someone who was used to people breaking his trust it meant everything to him when even his wolf trusted and even longed for Klaus.

Random Road

Damon slouched from where he was sitting in the front passenger's seat. He could practically feel the amused smile that he knew without a doubt Alaric had on his face from the back seat of the car. There was a tiny smile which appeared on the male vampire's face unconsciously as he thought of the other man. Reflecting silently on how he hadn't felt a calm such as this since Derek had gone missing, realizing with a jolt about how more often than not the few times he'd been truly and completely happy had been whilst the other man was involved. A frown returned to his face though when the reality of the situation at hand returned to the forefront of his mind, instantly bringing every bit of his suspicion for Katherine along with it.

"Not that I don't love driving aimlessly as much as the next guy, but could you maybe fill me in?" The expression Katherine bore on her face brought an immediate confusion to both men. Alaric had never seen that look which the female vampire had on her face. Both men were so used to seeing the confidence which Katherine wore easier than a person wore a smile. Alaric remembered seeing the confidence with his own eyes when Klaus had been controlling him. Damon's frown, if it was anything to go by meant that he was just as confused. Damon, from the front seat had turned so that he was looking straight ahead to the road. That look was one he'd only ever seen a handful of times. Once as a human just before Giuseppe had discovered her, what he knew now to be uncertainty when she had one day been talking to Pearl. The other had been when Damon had given her vervain to keep any further influence from Klaus at bay. The male vampire now realized what it was. She was nervous. Nerves which were caused by an uncertainty at what exactly was going to happen. When Katherine had previously had this expression there had also been another expression which had accompanied it as well. Reluctance. But why exactly would there be a reason for her to have any reluctance towards what was going on? Unless she had been backed into a corner. Or maybe she had been forced to change her own plans.

Each time it had been about Klaus, but he was buys dealing with creating and figuring out why exactly his hybrids weren't working to care about Katherine. "Katherine spill it." The female vampire's grip tightened on the steering wheel, which brought an immediate grown to Alaric's face.

Katherine could practically feel Damon's phone burning a hole in her pocket. This newfound reluctance to carry out what had been a fairly good plan. One which had evidence to support its own credibility. The fact that Pearl had been unwilling to reveal anything on the subject, which had been proof enough of its own possible validation. The only thing was that she needed to speak to a person who had been around Pearl enough that she would have trusted her with the information. There was only one person and they were dead. The only problem was that the plan would now affect someone which she wasn't sure that she was willing to hurt. The only problem was that Stefan had messed with any and every possible backup plan, along with the possibility of being able to come up with something different. There was a hope in her head that perhaps with Damon, loathe as she was to admit it. That maybe with the younger vampire's help that she would maybe be able to figure out a way to solve her predicament. There was just the small matter of keeping Mystic Falls from drawing Damon back in for at least a few hours.

Salvatore Boarding House

As Derek, along with Rebekah walked through the front door the female vampire noticed the slight pause from the other as they walked across the threshold. "Even though Stefan was a ripper back during the twenties he talked about allowing a couple of human's to reside somewhere in Mystic Falls. I assume this had to have been what he had been talking about." Rebekah trailed off after she said this, obviously taking in what could be seen of the Salvatore Boarding House. Derek felt uneasy because of the ease in which they entered the Boarding House. The bigger question was what exactly had happened to Zach, because before he had gone into Augustine he had been alive. Obviously, Zach was either dead or the person who he had passed the house to had died, knowing that it was more than likely the former because of the supernatural death rate in Mystic Falls he made his way over towards the kitchen feeling a little bad for the death of the other Salvatore. Knowing that he would probably hear about everything that had happened since his father had come into town especially all of the bad things he focused on finding any kind of coffee. Pulling the cabinet which was located on the left side of the kitchen just above the coffee machine which was where any sane person would have kept their coffee. Frowning at the lack of any kind of coffee he began to search through the rest of the kitchen because he knew for a fact that his father had a particular fondness for the beverage. Not as much as he did but he still enjoyed the drink especially in the mornings and around the time when it would start getting dark outside.

After Derek had all but torn the cabinets from the wall he noticed that there was a piece of paper which was pinned to the door of the fridge. Rebekah who had watched the entire scene, humor in her eyes along with the smile which was spread across her face watched with rapt attention as Derek scanned whatever was written down. The glare on Derek's face should have caused the piece of paper to burst into flames because of the anger which Derek felt at not having any kind of coffee or caffeine in the house. "Maybe instead of pumping your body full of more caffeine you could try and get some sleep." The look which Derek sent Rebekah's way clearly showed exactly what he thought of that idea. That it was hilarious as to how she had suggested getting any kind of sleep. The main reason not actually being the nightmares which would come as result of Augustine but because of each and every single feeling which Mystic Falls were steadily causing to come to mind. Derek had perhaps only about one or two good memories of Mystic Falls from the few times in which he had visited with Damon growing up.

Derek continued to pace around the living room much like that of a caged tiger, or a caged wolf he thought to himself with a laugh which earned him a concerned look from Rebekah. "Why don't you come and sit down over here?" Rebekah's tone displayed the concern which was evident because of how the other Original was reacting. "Yeah I can't sit down." Derek continued to pace once again which caused Rebekah's concerned look to grow even more.

"Is there a reason as to exactly why you can't sit still other than the fact that you're probably coming down from an insane caffeine high?" Derek's laugh actually caused Rebekah to flinch out of surprise which brought a smile to Derek's face because of the reaction from the female vampire. "I'm not coming down from a caffeine high. What's going on is that I'm in a small town which is in my top three least favorite places I've ever been which includes Augustine where I was tortured practically every day for two years of my life." The look which Rebekah sent his way was one which immediately made him feel bad about practically shoving Augustine in her face.

"Sorry."

"You're talking to the person who got to sit front row to many of the multiple tantrums which Nik has had over the years." The comment got a chuckle from Derek who made his way over towards the leather couch which he immediately plopped onto, allowing his body to sink down into the comfortable leather.

"You said that Mystic Falls was one of your least favorite places in the world. But what would your favorite be? Or at least top three."

"Italy." There was no amount of hesitation or any kind of uncertainty when Derek's answer practically shot out of his mouth. Derek waited for another question and when there was a lack of any kind of speech over where Rebekah was sitting in one of the armchairs he rolled himself over so that he could look at the female Original vampire who was looking at him expectantly. "Oh you want details." A genuine smile appeared on Derek's face as he rolled back over onto his back so that he was looking straight up at the ceiling.

"Of course, I would want details, especially when you answered so quickly and because there was not even a tiny bit of hesitation. So what's so special about Italy?" Derek chuckled under his breath which Rebekah heard causing her to smile because Derek was finally beginning to loosen up a little more since reaching Mystic Falls. "There's nothing over the top about Italy." The pointed look which Rebekah shot him caused him to chuckle before thinking of how exactly he was supposed to describe his favorite place in the world.

"There's a villa in Italy which Damon and myself made into the Salvatore estate when it was finished being built when I was about five years old. Damon had been working on getting it done for years because he wanted it done to his own specifications even before he adopted me. It's fairly large and perfect for when a young werewolf had to go through full moons before he learned control." The fondness with which Derek spoke about the villa brought a smile to Rebekah's face, making her think of when her family had lived in New Orleans before things had gone bad. Keeping a frown from appearing on her face as thoughts of old wounds and past flames entered her mind she looked over to Derek and was startled to see that he was in the process of nodding off.

A sudden noise, courtesy of Rebekah's new cellphone a gift from her brother broke through the silence which had settled across the room. Jolting Derek from the steady descent which his body had been making towards getting him to actually sleep. Rebekah glared down at the cellphone in her hand which miraculously managed not to catch fire from her gaze alone. This was the sight which Derek saw as he fully woke from the light slumber which his body had been leaning towards. "You are aware that no matter how much you glare at your new electronical device that it won't combust into flames, right?" The comment managed to rid Rebekah of the anger which left her just as quickly as it had come. Rebekah had learned how to use her new cellphone scarily fast. Fast enough to cause Derek to wonder if he could pass on some of the more 'frowned upon' skills which he had learned through the years. This thought was interrupted by a cough from Rebekah in an attempt to get his attention.

"Evidently Nik requires my expertise in safeguarding Stefan. Your uncle whose neck he very likely only stopped breaking so that he would be able to communicate. I'm supposed to keep an eye on Stefan while the two of you discuss tormenting the latest doppelgänger bitch. Which I will gladly do for you because Nik is in the proverbial doghouse for the foreseeable future but if Nik believes that I have no idea as to what else you'll be getting up to than he's truly gone senile." Derek allowed the broad smile that he had been holding back since Rebekah had mentioned the words doppelgänger bitch. As Rebekah got to her feet she allowed a smile to grace her features because of how happy it made her to see the genuine smile on Derek's face. Thinking that she would have to mention the Italian villa which Derek was obviously very fond of. Then another thought came to mind because of the villa. Derek and Klaus were both two people that were in such synch that the two of them didn't realize that there was still going to be that issue of letting each other in. Along with that fear which each of them held, at least as far as her brother Nik went. Derek would have it more than likely as well if not because of Augustine but because of multiple other factors. Sometimes her siblings didn't give her enough credit but she was more than adept at reading people and Derek and Klaus were similar enough that they were both similar in reading. Derek had a mask though that came close to putting Elijah's to shame though. Which was why she needed to say something about the subject without pushing too hard.

Derek's own trauma from the hand of Augustine would only make it harder down the line in opening up. And Nik's borderline paranoia wouldn't be any help either but for some reason her brother's paranoia was less severe which had been evident after she had gotten some of her anger out by stabbing her brother. Which had felt more than a little satisfying. But she refused to let the two of them destroy each other eventually because of each one's attempt towards ignoring their own personal demon until it went away. As amazing as their relationship was as of right now she refused to let it crash and burn because of each man's attempt towards ignoring their own emotional issues that would end up creating a problem.

Rebekah began to make her way towards the door, coming to a stop just a few steps away from the door. A moment passed as she stood there motionless with Derek watching the female Original in the background waiting to see what exactly she was going to do. Turning around Rebekah focused her complete attention on the younger Original, taking in a breath before releasing that very same breath which had evidently been her own way of stalling for time before she had figured out just exactly what to say.

"Derek. Try to let him in. Nik that is." Derek's body visually tensed up immediately after the words had left Rebekah's mouth and across her lips. "I understand pain better than most because of how long I've been alive. Nik and Elijah even more so than myself as a result of their own life experiences which they experienced while they were both still human." Rebekah took in a deep breath before she seemed to gather the courage which she needed to begin talking once again and Derek watched her entire body which was tightly wound with no small amount of stress involved as well.

"Once I asked my older brother Elijah about love, about why he had such a reluctance towards finding someone that he could love and to be loved in return. This was maybe two hundred years into our lives as vampires mind you. Experiences had altered us but we had yet to even reach five hundred years of age." Derek watched with rapt attention as to how Rebekah was acting. Watching each and every movement which she made. Each miniscule motion which was made by the female vampire who was being both mentally and physically affected by whatever she was about to tell him.

"The answer that I got from my older brother was not what I had expected, or an answer that I had ever wanted to hear any of my brother's say. Elijah's response broke my heart, the pain which hurt even more because I knew for a fact that Nik believed the exact same thing." Derek at first thought it to be just the way the light had fallen across Rebekah's face but realized that it wasn't when she faced him completely, her face displaying each emotion which showed her own inner turmoil. Derek had never had any siblings so he would never be able to understand that unrelenting love for a sibling which had caused such a response from the female vampire. If it was anything similar in how much Derek cared for Damon and for his uncle then her emotions being all over the place was completely rational.

"Elijah told me that as much as he wanted to love a person in such a way. To love a person with every fiber of his being, and to be loved just as much in return that it was terrifying in how vulnerable it made a person. Because when you truly love a person in such a way they hold so much power over you. The power to completely and utterly destroy you, with only their promise to never hurt you. I know that Nik is of the same mind as Elijah, I know both of my brother's as much as they would say otherwise." Derek felt an immediate rush of anger, towards each and every person that had ever hurt Nik and even their brother Elijah so badly. The horrible reality in what Elijah had told his sister was that Derek understood one hundred percent how both of her brothers could come to such a conclusion.

After you had been hurt it was more than a little terrifying to give up a piece of yourself, to have complete trust that another person wouldn't hurt you just as badly as the one before. Trust didn't come easy after being hurt, and it was practically nonexistent to people such as Derek and Klaus who had been hurt by multiple people during their lifespans with only a few exceptions. Derek had no words for Rebekah who was currently looking directly at the ground.

"My father had a part in hurting my brothers. He was never kind to them and would take each and every opening to hurt them more and more each time. For as much as father hated Niklaus, he grew to hate Elijah just as much because of how he chose to protect his younger brother. A thousand years did little to help in that regard. But I'm asking, hell maybe I'm begging you. Let Nik in, let him care for you even when you feel as if that pain is threatening to overwhelm you. You both deserve everything that the world can offer. Don't shut him out, I know that he cares for you because his paranoia which has been a constant companion for years, hell centuries is practically nonexistent around you. And from what I've seen the demons that you brought with you from Augustine shrink for you in the very same way." Rebekah took a deep breath and pulled out her phone which had just gone off once more after having gone off earlier during their talk and typed a message of some sort in response to whatever message that Klaus had sent her way. More than likely it was Nik who would be demanding to know Rebekah's reason for why it was taking a vampire, capable of moving fast enough to be invisible to the human eye so long to reach him. As soon as the message had been finished and sent to her brother Rebekah's gaze landed on Derek.

"I know that it hurts Derek. I know that each and every day hurts more than the day before, and not less which would make what you've gone through easier to deal with. But don't keep it all bottled up. Let Nik help you." And with this Rebekah vanished with such speed that it had been as if she had never really been there at all. Derek thought on everything which Rebekah had said to him. Had it been anyone else he would have either punched them in the face, or more likely than not have broken their spine depending upon how exactly he was feeling. Because from anyone else it would have been a pity party in disguise, but this hadn't been. This had been a form of understanding which had come from a person who had experienced pain just as horribly as he had. This was his last thought as the exhaustion from earlier finally seemed to catch up with him, soft breaths steady as he slipped into unconsciousness. Distantly hoping and yearning for a deep sleep which would be devoid of any dreams or rather of the nightmares which continually plagued him because of what Augustine had done to him.


	7. She Wolf

**Rebekah**

" _Elena and her friends are going to do everything in their power to keep Nik from getting to the bottom of just exactly why he is unable to create hybrids." The pause the younger of the two took struck Rebekah as odd, but only for a moment. Derek, as obvious as Nik's affection for him would have felt nervous, as would any person used to being hurt more often than not. Derek, either aware or subconsciously aware was nervous that Nik would have more concern for the hybrid's which had been one of her brother's major goals close to a millennium._

" _Personally, I don't care if people from founding families, apart from the Forbes are hurt but there is something that I need you to do, discreetly. The sooner the better because Nik is going to keep us busy with planning what we're going to do about the doppelgänger." The sound of the radio and the movement of the car was the only sound in the car before she answered._

" _Just tell me what to do."_

These were the words which stopped Rebekah in her tracks. Mentally she altered what had been the plan when her brother had talked with her over the phone. With her heading straight back to where Niklaus and Stefan were because he needed her to watch Stefan, the thought immediately causing her eyes to roll. Klaus would be fine without her for a half hour, he was very likely still breaking Stefan's neck anyway, and Derek was so exhausted that he would remain that way for quite some time.

 **Salvatore Boarding House**

Fire licked at the walls, uncomfortable warmth long gone. Being replaced with a feeling of each and every single one of the cells on his body which the fire touched to sear. To sear and to burn in such a way that made it almost impossible to hear anything over the piercing, white-hot pain which continued to strike at each and every part of his body. The fire much like that of a creature which continued to climb and to curl higher and higher around the room whilst other flames relentlessly continued to attack every single available place on his body with such shattering pain so that even with his mouth open wide, that it meant nothing except for the silent scream because of how severe the pain. One of the few blessings which a person could still have during such extreme moments of pain. Had been taken away from him which was more than evident by the lack of noise which refused to come up his throat and to pass over his lips. A testament to how well and truly bloody fucked they all were. Because if he couldn't even have that one luxury, that scream, that moment during pain when you knew that screaming was in no way going to help with the pain. But was exactly what he wanted if there was in any way for him to block out, even for just a moment. Or even half of a moment that smell. The smell of each and every single one of his family members, human and werewolf alike burning alive. The smell of their cooking flesh penetrating the smoke-filled air, giving it an acrid smell which even the massive amount of smoke couldn't hide.

When the screams began all at once around him it was overwhelming. The feeling of pack bonds breaking as one by one, each member of his pack, his family began to fade away. The flames and the smoke around them making it impossible to escape, but Peter doubted that even if he was able to escape that he would take the opening. The continuous screams of his pack spurred him on immediately, not thinking twice he ran towards the sound of the screams which were largely focused in the basement of the house. Where full moons would be spent for the wolves who had yet to gain balance with their wolf during the full moon.

"Peter!"

The sound of his name being yelled from behind the door.

Talia. His older sister's voice which was practically nonexistent because of the pain which continued to roar through both his head and body, but her voice managed to rise above all of his pain called out to him from behind the door. The sound of her voice pierced his heart better than any knife ever could. Despite the multiple arguments which had transpired on behalf of Derek she was still his older sister. His older sister who was dying with him unable to do anything but to stand and listen to the universal screams of the entire pack.

Derek jolted into a sitting position, the images of Peter burning alive still present, the heat from the nightmare felt as if he had been there with the Hale's as they had been burned alive. Anger. Anger was the emotion which he felt towards the pack. Because Peter was supposed to be with elsewhere at the time of the fire, but instead had been with the pack because of some issue which Talia Hale in all of her "infinite" wisdom could not figure out.

Visiting Peter in person had been one of many things beyond Derek's reach months ago. What with escaping from Augustine, tracking down werewolf packs and avoiding anything which would make him deal with Augustine and what they had done to him along with a lack of sleep overall his uncle had been placed fourth or fifth on the list. Derek had felt his uncle through the pack bond and so he had been sure that there had been no major issues with the older wolf, but he had been unable to visit. The feel of the pack bond rushing back, much like a piece of a puzzle being placed in just the right configuration had been euphoric. Two years being a part of Augustine a literal torture which had been made worse by what the men responsible for "researching" werewolves had somehow managed to do about the pack bond. The entire time in Augustine he had been unable to touch the pack bond which he shared with Peter and Damon. The bond had been just out of his own reach, so close but beyond his grasp because of what Grayson Gilbert amongst others had managed to do. While in Augustine, being unable to see his uncle, along with separation from the raven-haired vampire from being physically unable to visit Peter. After Augustine there had been no possible way that he could have gone to see the other werewolf. The instant that he had gone to visit Peter, Damon would have been on him faster than any force from heaven or hell. The phone call from a burner phone to check in on the other wolf had been less than sufficient but necessary.

Being able to finally visit his uncle was the only thing that mattered to Derek as he bolted off in the direction of the hospital where Peter was. Recently acquired hybrid enhancements not working fast enough for Derek as he sped off, thinking of nothing else but of his uncle.

" _I want you to fulfill the plan which you currently have. I know for a fact that there has to be a plan which you are currently working on that will result in Klaus' death. I want you to fulfill it. I want the man dead because of what he did to me. Klaus Mikaelson needs to die and you're going to be the one to do it with your current plan._

 _Katherine cursed as she heard the words, and in her mind, she was going over each and every way that she could get behind this. The people that she would be able to convince to help her, to get her out of this promise._

" _Katherine. I'm calling in my favor." Her blood ran cold upon hearing this, because as much as she would stab people in the back she paid her debts. And Stefan was calling in the debt which she owed him. Katherine had already repaid the debt that she owed him by saving his life, but she owed Stefan a completely other death by getting her released from Klaus' grasp. Because everyone around her had known that eventually the hybrid would have grown tired of her and would have killed her. Katherine internally cursed at having to pay off this debt so soon. The plan to repay the debt for Stefan had been to reappear in Mystic Falls in a few months and assisting them in some sort of way._

 **Random Gas Station**

Katherine frowned as she leaned against the car which she had bought just the other day. A car that she had actually paid for it thank you very much, because as easy as it would have been for her to compel each and every one of those people to forget about both the car and she, it was more than slightly annoying to have to continually compel highway patrol and all others included when they would pull her over for questioning. Katherine had sent Damon and Alaric into the gas station for provisions and for anything else that the two of them might possibly want because there was a fair drive ahead of them. The awful aspect of this entire affair was that she was having to come up with a different plan because of the meddling which Stefan Salvatore insisting upon. Which had wrecked the plan which had been in the works and would have served her much better.

The most recent plan, which would have been seamless was to alter her original plan. Just enough so that it would work well with the new idea which had been guaranteed to work because of its simple efficiency. The younger Salvatore immediately had put a stop to that, Stefan was being vengeful and allowing his feelings to overrule his judgment too much, making this entire affair problematic.

Thinking back, she should have walked away rather than approaching Stefan. Her most recent plan had been shaping up to be particularly effective. A plan which went in a new direction that would manipulate Klaus rather than having her risk life and limb in another attempt towards killing him. Which had been more than a little salivating for her, there were only so many favors that she could call in. Wasting favors over the years with each attempt towards killing the hybrid had been frustrating beyond belief, and as a vampire you needed as many cards as possible.

Over five hundred as a vampire, each and every time she got closer to Niklaus Mikaelson over the years was a brush with death. Each and every time she wished that she could have avoided. As much as she knew how to survive, calling in favors from a multitude of people to accomplish these feats, she knew that eventually her luck was going to run out, loathe as she was to admit that even the "great Katherine Pierce's" luck was not eternal. The position which Stefan had put her in brought a horrid taste to her mouth, and not simply because of the risk to her own life which could have been avoided.

The plan, her second most recent plan would result in maximum casualties, casualties that would cause her to lose sleep over that the alterations would have gotten rid of. The casualties had been fine when it had been the only plan which had a chance of working. When she had come up with another, much better plan it paled in comparison and fell short in so many ways. The main advantage before Stefan had gotten involved had ensured that she wouldn't have to be anywhere near Niklaus Mikaelson. When Stefan had called in his favor, it had wrecked her plans which she was still fuming about. The only reason Stefan was still alive after all this time was an emotional connection that she would never speak of.

The mental tirade which was going on in Katherine's head was disrupted by the faint buzz against her leg. Katherine had turned Damon's phone on vibrate when the two men had gone into the gas station. The reason, she may be willing to do whatever she could to survive, but Derek was a person she found herself getting more attached to. Confusion turned into immediate interest at the name on Damon's screen.

Kristos : Permission to allow entrance?

Clicking on the image which was below the message Katherine's interest increased. Dark hair and a pair of green eyes which you could never forget with a body just as unforgettable made it effortless to identify the image. Derek Salvatore. What Katherine wanted to know was why Derek was trying to get into an institution such as Kristos, one of few institutions willing to help supernatural creatures. Gaining entrance, much less admittance to the place was beyond difficult. Staring down at the phone, wondering just who would warrant such an admittance, a metaphorical lightbulb turned on.

Typing out a reply to the text she reread it before pressing send.

Damon: Permission granted. When a blond male, with blue eyes eventually comes calling to look for him allow him entrance. He's an ally of Derek.

Peter Hale.

Of course, it couldn't be anyone else. Peter Hale was one of the only two surviving members of the Hale family. One, truth be told in reference to the werewolf community because they would never consider a hybrid, or any wolf cast out of a pack a member anymore. Peter Hale who had been nearly killed in the fire which had killed so many of the pack. This brought a smile to Katherine's face before she turned Damon's phone back on silent when she heard the two of them making their way out to her car. If there was a way to deal with Stefan's meddling in her plans, to use the Scooby Gang to cancel it out then Peter Hale would be a very useful ally.

 **Downtown Mystic Falls**

As Rebekah approached the truck which her brother had at least pulled off to the side where there was less of a general population she couldn't help a sigh. The faint sound of a neck cracking let her know that her brother was still breaking Stefan's neck. Rebekah would have felt bad for the younger vampire if he hadn't lied to not just Nik and herself, but also to Derek, his own relative. For a girl. Stretching out her senses, checking to see if anyone of any great concern was in the vicinity she sighed before lifting the door to the truck to see Klaus prodding Stefan with the toe of his boot.

The look from her brother showed clearly how annoyed he was. Rebekah would let it slide this time because she knew how concerned he was about Derek, she was too but at least he was getting some semblance of sleep at the Boarding House.

"You had better have a bloody good reason for not answering or responding to any of the calls or messages that I have sent to you!" Rebekah did her best to keep a straight face in the wake of her brother's anger, she knew that he meant her no harm. Pulling out her phone Rebekah gave the air of being uninformed, pulling the device out and turning it over until she managed to turn the device back on. Which immediately continued to go off in response to the many unheard and unanswered phone calls and messages.

"It was off? I didn't realize that I had turned it off." The glare from her brother caused the wide-eyed look on her face to turn into a broad smile which her brother rolled his eyes as result. "That wasn't even vaguely convincing. You could have helped your case if you hadn't figured out how to work a cellphone in less than fifteen minutes after receiving it." Rebekah shrugged before she approached Stefan's prone form, angling her head to take in the younger vampire's prone form from a different angle.

"Have you been breaking his neck ever since Derek and I left?" A smirk was all that she received which gave her all the answer that she needed.

"Is there a reason for not answering your cellphone or were you just trying to annoy me? Because I can't deal with Stefan Salvatore all day, and there is a necessity to locate a certain doppelgänger." Motioning with her hands for her older brother to hurry off to find Derek she leaned against the far wall of the truck before giving him a look which let him know that she saw right through his façade.

"You mean that you want to check on Derek, that your wolf wants more than anything to cover in his own scent? Mr. Salvatore is at the Boarding House which is fairly easy to locate." Klaus had a lascivious smile on his face for his sister in regard to Derek. There was no hiding the affection which he felt for the man that fit so well with his own wolf.

"Let him in Nik." This was said as her brother was just about to bolt off with the directions which his sister had given him to get to the boarding house. Klaus never turned around to look at her before he bolted off in the direction of the boarding house, with his sister hoping that this time would be different. That this wouldn't be like any of the other lovers that had come across Nik's path.

The building before him had the appearance of practically every other hospital in the country. Slightly old, the smell of death and sickness prominent. The difference here was that there was the smell of vervain, mountain ash, wolfsbane, and salt. The hospital here was similar to Eichen House in California, which was used solely for housing the insane and the supernatural, with the exception that Kristos was much less insane asylum. Each and every member of the staff was on vervain, equipped with various symbols to ward off demonic possession. The institute was commonly known for being used by hunters who needed surgeries. Hunters that didn't trust normal hospitals where possessions were concerned.

Each step that brought Derek closer to the hospital caused the headache in his head to steadily grow. The presence of mountain ash, wolfsbane, and the immense amount of activity which was murder on his newly altered senses was the cause. Derek took in his surroundings as he approached the main entrance. For example, the cameras located in each of the main corners of the room, ensuring that there was no way that upon entrance your face would be missed. Being able to enter a hospital this easily would have been somewhat concerning if Derek hadn't seen the man who had discreetly been standing at the edge of the property to announce his arrival.

"Mr. Salvatore?" Looking to the figure that stood behind the main desk he was met with a figure that exuded power. Not so much to have been evident to any normal being but there was a glamour that helped disguise their features. Taking in the man's form, he noticed slightly elongated ears, sharper than was normal canines, and eyes which flashed amber when he looked to the wolf's face.

"Kristos allows a werewolf to guard the door?"

"What better creature than one that has supernatural hearing? There are multiple of them in the facility along with countless hunters and regular humans that work here. There are multiple banshee's that work here as well. But you're not here to ask about the facility, you're here to see your uncle." Derek refused to allow his lack of faith because of how easily they allowed him to come in here.

"We contacted your father and he gave permission for your entrance. Later when Damon Salvatore can accompany you measures will be taken to give you the same luxury." The wolf motioned for Derek to follow him. A sudden scream from the other end of the hospital caught Derek's attention, turning to face the direction which it came from down the hall. Looking down the corridor the screams continued, and he had to wonder if this really was the best place for his uncle to be if there were such screams hospital. "An exorcism." Derek turned to look to the as of yet unnamed werewolf, allowing unease to show on his face. "The hospital has multiple exorcists and masters of the dark arts to deal with exorcisms in a wing which is attached to the hospital."

The wolf waited for Derek to before the two of them began to make their way once more towards Peter's room. As the two of them made their way through the hospital Derek stretched out his senses and was surprised by what he heard. There were clearly signs of other supernatural creatures other than just vampires and werewolves. The feeling of magic and the sound of chanting instantly made Derek nervous which the other wolf clearly caught.

"There are wards and protections put in place so that no form of witchcraft or magic can be done other than for self-defense. You should trust the protections and what has been done which has kept this place running." Derek turned around so that he was looking at the back of the other wolf.

"Trust does not come easily to me."

The other werewolf never responded as they stopped before a door at the very end of the hall, Derek noticing that the door was a bright red. The door was at the back of Derek's mind when the presence of something against his own mind was giving him a migraine. Keeping this to himself as the door was opened Derek caught sight of his uncle, a blanket pulled up so that it rested halfway up the man's torso in an attempt to keep away a chill. There was another scent which immediately caught Derek's attention, more wolf than anything else. Looking to the shadow below the bed Derek realized that they were not alone in the room and allowing his claws to come out Derek prepared himself to strike out against whatever force this hospital had allowed close enough to harm his uncle.

When the form of a medium-sized wolf jumped atop the bed, covering the bottom half of his uncle's bed he was more than prepared to strike out at whatever wolf had decided to take up in Peter's room.

 **Salvatore Boarding House**

Klaus as he approached the Boarding House which Rebekah had given him directions to reach he sighed. The sight of the structure calmed him down. Klaus would never tell his younger sister this but the amount of time without the other hybrid had left him feeling much like before he had first met Derek in the woods. The wolf felt so much more at ease when the other man was around, something which should have made him more than a little nervous but right now he couldn't care less.

Stretching out his senses while he made his way towards the front door Klaus listened out for anything unusual as he opened the door. Klaus looked immediately to the couch where his sister said Derek had been last and his heart felt as if it had stopped. Derek was nowhere in the Boarding House. Extending his senses even further he felt out for what direction Derek could have gone and was confused by the direction that he had gone in, especially without his car. Pulling his phone out as he slammed the front door closed Klaus put in his sister's number, hoping that she had gotten over her momentary lapse in how a cellphone works.

"Mikaelson Services, how may I help you?" Klaus paused for a moment, allowing her comment to sit for a moment in his mind.

"As much as I love your witty banter I need to know if Derek has joined up with you."

"Unless Derek has gained the ability to become scentless and invisible then no, he has not. I've been slightly busy breaking the neck of the youngest vampire that could." Normally Klaus would have laughed at such a comment but right now Derek's location was at the forefront of his mind.

 **Kristos Hospital**

A loud piercing noise caused both hybrid and wolf to stop in their attack against each other. The pain was so intense that Derek was unable to raise his hands to cover his ears, the noise getting rid of any other thoughts.

"Before the two of you rip out each other's throats you should know that neither of you want Peter harmed in any way. So if the two of you want to fight it out then you had best do it outside because I will not allow any harm to come to Peter Hale." Derek pulled himself up so that his arm was resting on his uncle's bed, his left side leaning against the bed to keep himself upright.

A loud growl in his head caused Derek to jolt as if he had been stung, the sound in his head deafening. Looking around for the source of the growl he found nothing other than the brown wolf he had nearly attacked earlier. The growling returned again but he realized that it had been in his head, because the wolf had never made any sound. Knowing that he was probably going crazy he reached for his jacket, about to remove it before remembering that there weren't only two people in the room.

"You can go now. We're not going to kill each other currently, at least I'm not going to act on any violence alone with my uncle in the room." Keeping the wolf in his sight Derek listened as the male werewolf that he realized he had never gotten the name of left the room. Knowing that he was probably crazy for even entertaining the idea running through his head Derek removed the rest of his clothing while the wolf gave him a look which made him slightly nervous from the lack of clothing between it and his nether regions. After removing the last article of his clothing Derek allowed the transformation to take over his body, the wolf coming forward as fur began to grow everywhere on his body, his eyes changing shape and each of his bones reshaping flawlessly.

Shaking off the last remnant of his transformation Derek looked to the smaller wolf before him, the she-wolf re-evaluating him now that he had transformed. Derek prepared himself for an attack or any kind of reaction which he would have to protect his uncle from but was unprepared for what happened next.

" _You're like him."_

" _Like who?"_ The she-wolf looked to Peter with a look which clearly showed how idiotic he was being if he didn't understand that she was talking about Peter.

" _Who are you?"_

" _How do I know that I can trust you? You look similar to the other man that visits here but that doesn't mean that I can trust you."_ Derek took the equivalent of a deep breath in his wolf form, the action a loud huff filling the room. _"One of the reasons that you can trust me is because I'm related to Peter. I'm his nephew."_ A loud growl resounded through the room as soon as the words had been communicated between the two of them.

" _That would be even less reason for me to believe you!"_ A loud snarl from the she-wolf Derek had yet to get the name of clearly showed what she thought of the Hales. Which was fair.

" _Yes. But I'm not one of those wolves that ended up getting Peter in this situation. I was cast-off by Talia Hale at a young age because of a situation which was beyond my own control."_ The brown wolf's snarls immediately stopped. The posture and the attitude of the wolf night and day from what had been displayed since he had entered the room.

" _You're that Derek?"_

" _Did Peter mention me?"_

" _Peter was going to bring me back with him when he returned to this side of the world. Then the fire…."_ Derek felt pain through the link between the two of them. Derek felt shock at the pain that the smaller wolf had, and why exactly would Peter have wanted to bring her with him unless she was important in some way. Derek would love to ask his mate, but he had been out of touch for two years and there was no way that Peter's mate would still have the same phone number. Peter and his mate both had been the perfect example of vigilance when it came to keeping ahead of hunters.

" _Were you in the house?"_

" _I saw it happen. Peter had told me not to follow him to the Hale House, but I did anyway. I saw… I saw them all burn…"_ The pain coming from the she-wolf was practically blinding as the two wolves sat across from each other. _"I transformed into a wolf and I haven't been able to transform back since then because Peter was the only wolf that I knew."_ Derek thought back to the time when Peter had left for California, thinking back if there had been anything that the other man had told him which would help in identifying just who this wolf was. There was the question of how old the wolf in her human form was. There was no point in asking the she-wolf though because as a wolf time went by much slower than it did as a human which was why multiple wolves measured time differently than humans, or even vampires did. This was one of the few things which Derek had kept even after years of being raised by a vampire.

" _What is your name?"_ The she-wolf was quiet through their bond, obviously still unsure as to whether she could fully trust the other wolf.

" _Malia. Malia Hale."_


End file.
